The Association of Non-Bank Microfinance Institution of Nigeria (ANMFIN) has said that it has trained 70 Microfinance Institutes (MFIs) on Inclusive Finance.

The Executive Secretary of the association, Mr Godbless Safugha, made this known in a chat with newsmen in Abuja.

According to him, the training is aimed at bridging the knowledge gap in the sector.

He said participants were trained on Rural Business Plan for MFIs, Corporate Governance, Risk Management and Access to Finance Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (MSMEDF).

He said the formal registration for the programme and curriculum development had been ongoing, adding that the association had trained 70 MFIs so far.

He said the duration for the training was between two to five days but the association would soon commence certification programmes which would last for three weeks.

The executive secretary said the programme was open to all microfinance institutions and those intending to start a microfinance business.

He said the programme had started impacting on members as most of them who had undergone the training had reported that they were doing well in their businesses.

“Recently, we discovered that there is a huge gap in terms of capacity building and most of the operators do not really understand what microfinance is all about.

“So, we decided to set up the ANMFIN Inclusive Finance Institute to breach the knowledge gap in the sector.

“Some of them have accessed the CBN MSMEDF through the added capacity and about 34 institutions are implementing the Rural Business Plan and are better off in terms of managing risk,’’ Safugha said.

He said that the institute was funded by the ANMFIN with support from external resource persons.
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