Enterprise Partners is pleased to announce the signing of partnership agreements with the “Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (AEMFI)”, as of November 8th, 2017.
Micro financing is a key element of economic development. It enables access to finance for SME’s so that they will create job opportunities for the youth and women. However, the SME finance market is constrained by low liquidity and substandard performance of the MFIs. To this end, Enterprise Partners, in partnership with AEMFI will focus on unlocking the MFI technical services market in a sustainable way of strengthening and building capacity of Micro finance institutions.

Two interventions will be launched in coming months:

1. Certified consultants for MFI’s: The intervention addresses the underlying constraints of technical service provisions within the market. It has been critically noted that local TSP’s lack the skill and expertise needed to serve MFIs. EP will ensure that the partner will actively participate in co-branded certification programs; with internationally accredited training organisations.
2. MFI investment for technical services: The intervention addresses low investment by MFIs in capacity building and paying for technical services. This intervention aims to facilitate business case development in MFI capacity building; organising policy dialogue forums that will create awareness for all stakeholders. The intervention will work to lobby the National Bank of Ethiopia as the regulatory institution tasked to enforce MFIs to allocate capacity building budgets.

The partnership between EP and AEMFI is pivotal as it takes a systemic approach in solving the critical constraints of the SME finance sector through a facilitative way.