The Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (AEMFI) and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (gGmbH) granted a certificate for sixteen technical service providers (TSPs)  with the support of Enterprise Partners (EP). The certification ceremony was held on March 14, 2019, at AEMFI with the presence of key stakeholders, including the National bank of Ethiopia, MFI CEOs and others.  The certified TSPs will start providing quality and affordable technical assistance to MFIs (1) Resource Mobilization and (2) To enable them to better serve micro, small and medium enterprises to grow and create more job opportunities, in particular for women and the youth.  

The TSPs were selected through a rigorous recruitment process and started training and mentoring sessions in November 2018 in five selected modules/courses: Training of Trainers, Strategy Planning and Business Modelling, Risk Management, Product Development, Customer Service and Relationship Management.   As an opening remark, Jennifer Schiebel, from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management briefly talked about the certification co-branding partnership with AEMFI and acknowledged linkage facilitation efforts of EP, as well as Frankfurt School position and interest regarding the continuity of TSPs certification program in the country.

In her brief message, Hajera Mohamed, SME Finance Sector Lead at EP, congratulated the certified TSPs and implementing partners given the importance of the program to ensuring sustainable solutions for MFIs capacity gaps. AEMFI Board Member, Ato Tezera Kebede, on his closing remarks highlighted the development of MFIs in Ethiopia and the growing demand for technical assistance as well as the importance of the intervention to develop the local capacity building service market that could address those growing MFIs TA needs. He acknowledged the efforts of implementing partners and congratulated certified technical service providers.