Friday, 23 August 2013

THE MFI STORY IN AFRICA, SUCCESSES, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE

Prof. Waswa Balunywa
Diana Nandagire Ntamu
Rachel Mindra Katoroogo

Introduction
The economic performance of Africa over the past three decades has been closely associated with its savings and investments. In fact Africa’s slow economic growth has been linked to its poor capital accumulation.  However, many African economies appear to have turned the corner and are moving towards a path of faster and steadier economic growth (World Bank, 2008). The continent continues to experience an average economic growth from 5.9 percent to 6 percent in 2008 and 2009 respectively and from 5.1 percent in 5.4 percent in 2011 and 2012 respectively (CGAP, African Development Bank, 2011).

Despite this growth, Africa remains a challenging region for financial services. The challenge the countries face is how to strengthen their financial systems in order to make them deliver the necessary financial resources and services to be used for boosting investments and facilitating employment creation. (Aryeetey, 2009{Formatting Citation})  In many African countries, only one in five households has an account with a financial institution. Increasing access to financial services to low income groups could contribute to reaching the first Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (MDG, 2012). Access to financial services increases and diversifies incomes, builds assets and improves lives in a multi - dimensional way. Evidence shows that when poor people access finance, it results into; better nutrition, improved health, access to schooling, a better roof on their homes, and expansion of their small businesses (Micro Banking Bulletin, 2008; Financial Access, 2010; CGAP, 2012)
Globally Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the largest portion of people excluded from formal financial services. Only 12 percent of adults have a bank account, and the situfation is most dire in rural areas where the large majority of the 863 million (70%) people in Africa live (Latortue, A. and Koning, A. (2012)). This prevents a vast population access to financial services, healthcare, education and jobs. 80 percent live off agriculture with many in subsistence farming (NEPAD, 2002; 2011). This means that a large number (75%) of people are unbanked.  Most of the people in these areas who are in business run informal seasonal businesses and others run small to medium enterprises. These businesses have no have no access to loans and overdrafts from well established financial institutions (Demirguc-kunt & Klapper, 2012). The reasons for this include: location in rural areas where there is a limited branch network of the formal financial institutions, seasonal businesses that cannot generate funds on a daily basis, lack of collateral and the cost of operating accounts in well established financial institutions. It is for this reason that micro finance institutions, private money lenders and other similar institutions have developed.
Micro Finance Institutions in Africa
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services. Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs)  provide a broad range of financial services such as savings, credit, payment services, money transfers and insurance to the poor and low income households and their farm or non- farm micro enterprises (Cull, Kunt, Morduch, 2009; Charitonenko and Campion, 2003). MFIs can be regular banks (private or governmental, specialized branches of commercial banks or financial intermediaries such as governmental or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) whose main area of expertise is not banking per se (MicroBanking Bulletin, 2010).  Services offered include credit extension (for production, consumption and emergency, access to savings facilities) and the provision of basic insurance such as life, health and cattle insurance (Fallavier, 1998).
The microfinance sector in Africa is quickly expanding, and institutions have increased their activities. In fact, African MFI´s are among the most productive globally, if measured by the number of borrowers and savers per staff member. MFI´s in Africa also demonstrate higher levels of portfolio quality with an average portfolio at risk over 30 days of only 4 percent. According to a survey made by Mixmarket, MFI´s in East Africa are the most profitable (Lafourcade, Isern, Mwangi, Brown, 2009).
Decades after the first experiment in non-collateralized credit was launched, microfinance has yet to reach those who need it most: millions of the world´s poorest in Africa (Helmore, 2008). Some 80% of the world’s 4.5 billion people living in low and lower middle income economies do not have access to formal sector financial services (Hulme, Arun, 2009). There are more than 300 million economically active individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa but only about 20 million of these have access to any kind of formal financial services. That is less than 10 percent (Helmore, 2008).
There are various types of MFIs, depending on the structure and function philosophy. In many instances, the MFI market is segmented according to the clients involved (women, agriculturalists, micro businesses) which in turn determines the various forms of methodologies and interventions;  credit unions, direct credit institutions, experiences with a credit component, and local cooperatives (Gronhossou, 2001). A main goal of many MFIs is to provide sustainable micro finance facilities to the poor to facilitate income generation and reduce poverty (Baumann 2001).
The genesis of this argument is that the poor lack access to financial services, credit and savings facilities. There is a limited branch network by the formal and regulated institutions, unsuitable products for the poor, the high cost of delivering financial services to the poor which makes it less attractive to financial institutions (AMFIU, 2008). The non- existence of effective financial services in rural areas affects people in many ways not limited to lack of credit for agricultural expansion to the long distances to banking services and payments in urban areas as well as the high risk involved in carrying cash on these long journeys (Mwenda and Muuka, 2004). With low bank penetration and a large informal sector, Africa with some of the most vulnerable populations in the world represents potential and possibilities for the microfinance community, (Micro Finance Information Exchange, 2007). This is reflected in the wide variety of financial service providers operating in lower income market segments in the continent, employing a broad range of methodologies.
In Africa there are 22,900 Microfinance providers. MFIs currently have around 13.8 billion deposits, and a gross loan portfolio 14.9 billion while the total potential demand is approximately at one billion people. (CGAP, 2012; MIX, 2012) This ratio shows an unexploited growth potential, thus constituting an emerging investment opportunity (Dieckmann, 2007). The growing market shows signs of additional investment opportunities such as providing supplementary services to the poor apart from lending such as saving services, pensions, insurances and housing credit (Reddy, 2007).
The Grameen Bank Experience
Microcredit is associated to the experience started in 1976, in Bangladesh, by Professor Muhammad Yunus. Observing that the small enterprises of the villages next to the university where he lectured were hostages of money lenders, paying scrupulously the extortive interests, Prof. Yunus started to lend small amounts with personal means, which he afterwards increased asking for loans (Hoff, 2010). By proving that the poor are worthy of credit and that they honour their small loans, Prof. Yunus obtained funding and donations before private and international banks, which resulted into the creation of the Grameen Bank in 1978.

Mohammed Yunus is known throughout the world as a pioneer of the microfinance concept and was awarded a Nobel Peace prize for his work in microfinance and poverty alleviation in 2006. Mohammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank has since their debut in 1979 continuously proven that microfinance is a viable method to alleviate poverty. Grameen Bank at currently has 136 billion deposits and issued loans worth 830 billion to individuals and over  5.0 million small and medium enterprises, of which 96 percent are women. (Grameen Annual Report, 2012)
Currently replica models of microfinance have been developed and adapted throughout the world, and implemented by increasingly professionalized and commercialized organizations (Daley-Harris, 2002). Somehow, these MFI´s all have duplicated the methods of Grameen Bank in different ways all over the world especially in Africa
Growth of MFIs in Africa
By end of 2010, 45 countries in Africa had a micro finance sector outreach of more than 23,000 service providers. (CGAP, 2012) Among those, seven countries had achieved the milestone of having over one million low income customers – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Uganda. (Microfinance Bulletin, 2010).  In Uganda the microfinance sector has experienced continuous growth. Compared to a total estimation of about 100,000 in 1996, for instance, the industry today reaches out to 1,405,170 depositors and 553,634 borrowers (AMFIU, 2012).

The growth of MFIs in Africa is not well documented however research in different countries and reports reveal different aspects of the status and growth of MFIs. In Ghana for instance, MFIs are constituted by savings and loan companies, cooperative unions and NGO MFIs. They are regulated by the Non Bank Financial Institutions Act, 2004. Ghana also has rural community banks which perform the function of financial intermediation in the rural areas.  Ghana’s MFI sector is constrained by poor financial performance of the MFIs and difficulty of reaching the poor people, subsidised lending and limited skilled labour in the sector.
In Kenya, the MFIs are regulated by the Microfinance Act of 2006 and the Central Bank has some oversight role. SACCOS are regulated under the cooperative societies act and various other acts including the companies act, building societies act, NGO act all impact on the performance of the MFIs. The Constraints faced by the sector include inadequate governance, limited outreach, limited access to funds and inadequate management capacity among others. 
In Malawi, the Central Bank the Reserve bank of Malawi is the overall regulator of the financial sector including non bank financial institutions. There is an array of legislative instruments that are also used to regulate the sector. The cooperative society register SACCOS, private sector companies are registered under the companies act an NGOS under the trustees incorporation act. The sector is mostly controlled and influenced by government and the performance of MFIs is very poor. They are faced with high loan default rates, low institutional profitability and low sustainability.
The last 20 years have seen significant advances in understanding and providing financial services to better advance development and eradicate poverty. This includes providing the financial means to save, access credit and start small businesses, with the potential to enhance community development.  The Grameen Bank model has been the basis of many schemes on the African countries.
Growth in provision of microfinance services in 2006 was spectacular in certain markets and among specific MFIs, with the highest clientele recorded in Kenya, particularly among the two leading Kenyan microfinance banks that showed a combined 170, 000 additional active borrowers in one year. MFIs in South Africa also actively increased their loan portfolio without seeing growth in the number of subscribers. This was a result of a shift to higher end clientele who could benefit from larger loan sizes. Larger loan sizes arose due to the expansion of services in urban areas where there is more demand for larger loans. Loan sizes in Southern Africa grew from 179 USD per borrower in 2005 to 233 USD in 2006 (Microfinance Information Exchange, 2007).
Strengthened by reforms of the recent years, African microfinance attracted international attention resulting into young start up banks and NGOs setting up activities in Central, East and Southern Africa. Financially self-sufficient MFIs were able to service a large number of customers. Table 1 below shows some of the largest financial service providers to low income households in Africa in 2007.
Table 1: Largest MFIs in Africa

Table 1 : Largest MFIs  in Africa 2007

Type
Country
Name
Outreach
CU
Kenya
KUSCCO
2,891,00       savers
Bank
Kenya
Equity Bank
1,840,000     savers
POSB
Kenya
KPOSB
1,280,000     savers
Bank
South Africa
Capitec
783,000        savers
CU
Rwanda
UBPR
656,000        savers
NBFI
Ethiopia
ACSI
597,000        borrowers
Bank
Uganda
Centenary
559,000         savers
CU
Burkina Faso
RCPB
513,000         savers
NGO
Morocco
Al Amana
481,000      borrowers
NGO
Morocco
Zakoura
473,000      borrowers
Source; Interviews, MIX Market, WOCCU, 2009
The Case of Uganda
In Uganda, the financial sector prior to independence in 1962 was dominated by foreign banks including Grindlays Bank, Barclays Bank of Baroda among others. Location of these banks was closely associated with the areas where there was cotton and coffee’
Unfortunately the banks simply brought money to the rural areas and did not encourage banking by the peasant farmers. Peasant farmers started cooperatives some of which were Savings and Credit Co-operaives (SACCOS). These SACCOS are the formal origin of micro finance institutions in Uganda.
To support this effort of widening access to the disadvantaged, the Uganda government started the Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) and later on the Cooperative Bank. The Cooperative Bank was intended to support the cooperatives in the rural areas and bank the vulnerable communities. 
In the 1960s and 70s, both the Cooperative Bank and the UCB attempted to support rural banking and it opened rural branches for the purpose. As a result of the collapse in the economy Uganda which had 290 branches in 1970 for a population of 9 million had 84 branches by 1987 for a population of 15.6 million. During this period access to financial services by the poor was more constrained as there was no more support. 
Following economic changes initiated in 1986, the financial sector in Uganda started growing as the economy grew. Unfortunately, the cooperative sector collapsed. And the organized SACCOS collapsed along with the collapse of the economy. As the economy picked up in the early 1990s, there was resurgence in the financial sector. SACCOS exist in most villages in Uganda and membership varies widely into women only, elderly people, youth, women and mixed SACCOS. The 1990s saw entry of NGOs and international MFIs into the microfinance sector. Because of the ease of registering SACCOS, numerous SACCOS were registered at cooperative offices at the district level. Among the international MFIs that entered the Ugandan market were FINCA, FOCCAS and PRIDE microfinance.
Many SACCOS were opened and were not regulated led to loss of members’ deposits and this led to the formation of AMFIU to protect the interests of the members. AMFIU by 2008 had 78 ordinary members’ financial institutions and 36 associate members’ individual institutions. By that year was serving 1.6 million savers and 448, 000 active borrowers The savings totaled Shs. 411 billion and the lending was Shs. 474 billion. 69 percent of the clients were women and the average loan size Shs. 400,000 (Kumwesiga, 2008).
There has been a rapid growth in the numbers most of which are not regulated and they have grown into different types of MFIs. There are those which are deposit taking which are now supervised by the micro deposit taking institutions (MDI) Act 2003, these are supervised by the Bank of Uganda. There is a large number of MFIs not supervised by the BOU these are the informal MFIs for example the SACCOs registered under the Co-operative Societies Statute (1991). Other formal institutions are registered under the companies act while others are registered under the nongovernmental organizations NGO statute. There are a variety of informal ones including village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), accumulated savings and credit associations (ASCAs) and rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs).
According to the Uganda Finscope (2009) study revealed that only 28% of the adult population are served by formal institutions such as commercial banks, Credit Institutions and Microfinance Deposit-Taking Institutions (MDIs). It further reports that 42% are served by informal institutions including SACCOs, ROSCAs and VSLAs among others. The remaining 30% of the Ugandan population is not served by either formal or informal financial service providers. The study also revealed that the most commonly used source of credit were; shops (54%), friends (25%) and informal groups (24%) Only 7% were found to have borrowed from commercial banks while 3% and 2% were borrowing from MFIs and SACCOs respectively. These are MFIs and they constitute backbone of financial intermediation in the rural areas.
Successes of MFIs
When properly harnessed and supported, micro finance can scale up beyond the micro level as a sustainable part of the process of economic empowerment by which the poor can uplift themselves from poverty. Historically, microfinance has been successful in reaching the population excluded from classical financial system (Psico and Dias, 2007). A successful MFI story that is widely cited is that of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, in terms of its staying power and positive impact on disadvantaged groups in enabling them to meet their basic needs. Part of its success has been attributed mainly to its concentration in lending to women groups (Kalyalya, 2003) and its reliance on peer pressure to ensure repayment (Osman, 1999).


MFIs in Africa have enabled people in low income market segments to access an increasing range of financial services – savings, micro insurance, transfers, leasing, loans for business, school fees, emergency, home improvement  (Micro Banking Bulletin , 2008).  Some MFIs have partnered with clean water providers bringing a potentially high impact product within reach for low income households. With demand driven products, the impact of micro finance is felt more. Access to a simple solar lantern can extend business hours into the evening while at the same time, enabling children to work longer on their homework. Households switching from open fire cooking to and LPG burner save time, improve health and reduce energy expenditures.


MFIs have been able to innovate in product delivery and product offering have seen rapid growth in client numbers over the past few years. In the different parts of Africa, innovations are occurring in mature as well as young markets.

Sustainable microfinance empowers women because they, as a group, are consistently better in promptness and reliability of repayment of credit. Targeting women as clients of micro credit programs has been a very effective method of ensuring that the benefits of increased income accrue to the general welfare of the family, and particularly education of girls in Zambia (Mwenda and Muuka, 2004).

MFIs in Africa in 2006 were not only profitable; they also boosted their ROA by one percentage point (from 0.9 to 1.9). Once they reached profitability they were able to expand operations over time, achieve economies of scale and secure more returns and this promoted sustainability. Positive returns allowed profitable African institutions to reach twice as many borrowers as their unprofitable peers.

Large MFIs displayed lower financial and operating expenses than their medium and small peers. When larger institutions passed the eight million USD threshold in loans outstanding, they could achieve high productivity and serve clients at 0.23 for every US dollar lent and thus could pass on efficiency gains to their clients through lower yields.

Savings led institutions attained substantial economies of scale due to their extensive branch networks and controlled costs. However, their low interest rates did not generate sufficient revenues. In some markets, MFIs have shaken up banking sectors that in Africa typically served a small group of large corporate clients. In Kenya Equity Bank managed to transform from building society into a bank and now ranks among the top banks in terms of market share and profits.

Robinson (2001) states that the 1980´s represented a turning point in the history of microfinance as MFI´s like Grameen Bank began to show that they could provide small loans and savings services profitably on a large scale. They received no continuing subsidies, were commercially funded and fully sustainable, and could attain wide outreach to clients. To be truly sustainable over a long period of time, a program must collect enough interest and fees to cover administration costs, bad debts, and inflation (Smith, Thurman, 2007). Data from the MIX indicates that leading MFI´s have succeeded in reaching large numbers of poor clients precisely because they have been allowed to charge interest rates that reflect their true costs, including the costs of growth (MIX, 2010).

Subsequently, it is clear that microfinance is looking less like a charity case and more like an investment case (Fuchs, 2006). Many microfinance providers insist that training is the most crucial additional service they can provide for their clients and that this reflects the performance of the MFI (Smith, Thurman, 2007). In Africa groups are especially effective for educating and training microfinance participants, enhancing networking and information dissemination (United Nations, 2007; 2010).

Challenges
While some MFIs and markets flourished, others faced tremendous macroeconomic, operational and institutional challenges which affected MFIs ability to serve their clients.
A major constraint in the provision of financial services in Africa is the high cost operating environment. Throughout Africa, low population densities, weak and /or expensive infrastructure, and high labour costs all contribute to high operating expenses, especially in rural areas. This therefore requires that MFIs to have economies of scale to remain competitive and responsive to client needs, The largest MFIs in Africa are those that that have continuously refined their lending methodologies, and have become the most productive both in terms of borrowers and savers per staff member. The smaller MFIs continue to struggle to cover costs and diversify their products.
Another constraint is the scarcity of skilled manpower at all levels; loan officer, middle management, and leadership. Senior MFI and bank managers need both the vision and the managerial capacity to find a business model that can create efficiencies, plan for its execution, know the risk, draw a path that overcomes the major challenges and stay the course. Corporate governance to ensure high quality management and oversee management’s capacity to continue to lead ever-more complex financial institutions is also a constraint in a number of countries. At the middle management and loan officer levels, is a risk for most MFIs in Africa. The competition is stiff, poaching of staff, insufficient training and rising salaries make human resources of the greatest problems in the sector.  (Micro Banking Bulletin, 2008).
Another challenge in expanding outreach was the control of portfolio quality. Compared to MFIs in other regions, African institutions struggled greatly to recover loans which were past due. The portfolio risk was over 30 and 90 days of 5.0 and 2.4 percent of loans outstanding respectively. As MFIs allowed their portfolio quality to deteriorate, they captured less revenue and were unable to increase outreach (MIX , 2007)
Many institutions were unable to curb expenditures related to financing, provisioning and operations. MFIs in Southern Africa suffered most from expensive operating environments consequently setting high interest rates as displayed by yields twice that of any other region on the continent. MFIs serving the poorest clientele displayed a high cost structure. Personnel and loan processing became very expensive when loans disbursed amounted to only 94 USD per client.
Insufficient funding for African MFIs is another challenge that creates a delay in MFIs achieving scale to break even. A growing amount of commercial funding, such as bank lending and private equity, is supplementing the amounts contributed by donors to MFIs around the world. Unfortunately, more sophisticated financing forms like issuing bonds are still expensive.
In a number of countries, the macro-economic and legal and regulatory environments form an underlying constraint to large scale financial service delivery. The supervisory capacity of central banks, bearing the ultimate responsibility for the financial health and stability of the financial sector, is falling behind in many countries.
The Future
MFIs have the capacity to improve income for the working poor especially the women. To achieve the goal of access to finance for all in Africa, the following actions need to be undertaken;
Africa MFIs need to turn towards technological innovations to best deliver their loans and savings services even if these come at a cost.
MFIs need to get strategies to address the high cost environments by diversifying ad increasing the volume of funding to fuel growth, recruiting skilled manpower and establishing affordable in- house training methods to manage rapid growth. A strong focus on governance, leadership and training is indispensable.
MFIs need to embrace change to continuously improve service delivery. New product lines such as life, health, crop and weather insurance may significantly increase sector impact by mitigating areas that dramatically reduce the coping capacities of people in Africa especially that they are more vulnerable than other people in the developing world.
While MFIs need to continuously improve their capacity to listen to clients, it is becoming increasingly important for clients to be better informed through financial education and consumer protection.
MFIs can utilize and support groups with regular meeting to reinforce group solidarity, discipline and consistent repayments. Groups are especially effective for educating and training microfinance participants, enhancing networking and information dissemination. They are also an important participatory tool that can reduce administrative costs by giving certain responsibilities, such as loan monitoring, to the members themselves.
Some African countries also need to continue to improve microfinance policy frameworks and adapt their legal and regulatory systems in line with rapidly changing financial sectors. Equally important are issues of strategy, budget and support plans for the expanded supervisory capacity costs that come with supervision of MFIs. The broader issues of efficient judicial systems, including property rights, court system and collateral registries remain pertinent issues to address in most countries in Africa. 


References
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