The Pashchimanchal Grameen Bikas Bank, Ltd. (PASGBB) from Nepal sent ten of its senior officers to participate in a Microfinance Study Tour in the Philippines. The Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) facilitated the study tour entitled “Microfinance Immersion: Delinquency Management and A Study Tour of Philippine Microfinance Institutions” on May 6 to 11, 2013. The study tour was done in partnership with the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) and the Kasagana-Ka Development Center, Inc. (KDCI), two SEDPI’s long-time partners.
The main objective of the study tour is to give the participants the opportunity to be exposed to microfinance schemes and strategies in the Philippines that have proven to be successful; and, identify different approaches to delinquency management that would be practical and applicable to their current microfinance operations. In order to achieve this, the different components of the study tour include a Delinquency Management Training, a presentation on the Philippine microfinance experience, and visit to KDCI, one of the successful microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country.
The participants were engaged in the participatory training course conducted by the key management staff of SEDPI. One of the participants commented that “everything were fine and appreciable. The presentation of the resource person was also admirable.” [sic] The senior officers of the development bank were also immersed on field and had interaction with microfinance staff and clients. The study tour was a venue to share current microfinance practices in the two countries—Nepal and the Philippines.
PasGBB is a microfinance bank currently operating under the Bank and Financial Institutions Act of Nepal. The main objective of the bank is “poverty alleviation of the rural poor through credit delivery system of the western region of Nepal.”[1] The bank operates in the rural regions of the country, which are the hard to reach areas for microfinance operations. Currently, PasGBB is cited as the most profitable regional rural development bank (RRDB) in Nepal.
[1] PasGBB Website (http://graminbanknepal.org/)