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.
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