Responsible Finance through Local Leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa
FROM THE SEEP BLOG:
Lessons in Responsible Finance: Learning from the SEEP training in Dakar, Senegal
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
The MasterCard Foundation
http://mastercardfdn.org/
The MasterCard Foundation advances microfinance and youth learning to promote financial inclusion and prosperity. Through collaboration with committed partners in 48 countries, The MasterCard Foundation is helping people living in poverty to access opportunities to learn and prosper. An independent, private foundation based in Toronto, Canada, it was established through the generosity of MasterCard Worldwide at the time of the company’s initial public offering in 2006.
Responsible Finance through Local Leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa
As microfinance scales and commercializes in Africa, there is an opportunity to support greater consumer protection and financial transparency within the industry. Microfinance associations play a key role in supporting the sustainable growth of the microfinance industry. SEEP serves these associations by connecting them to a global learning community and by supporting capacity building efforts.
To further the goal of strengthening microfinance institutions in Africa, The SEEP Network and The MasterCard Foundation have launched a new four-year partnership to improve management capacity of microfinance associations, advance financial transparency, and promote consumer protection. Resulting knowledge and experience will also be shared with associations across Sub-Saharan Africa to scale and sustain industry growth.
“Client protection and transparency are essential principles of responsible microfinance," said Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation. "This partnership will enable African microfinance associations to mainstream client protection principles across the industry, so that clients benefit from the responsible delivery of financial services.”
Through this partnership, eight microfinance associations with a membership of nearly 500 microfinance institutions (serving, in total 6 million clients) will improve their core management capacity. The project will also advance financial transparency and consumer protection principles among microfinance institutions, and share learnings with associations across Sub-Saharan Africa to scale and sustain industry growth.
