With plans of supporting microfinance institutions in its country, members of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) traveled to the Philippines to attend trainings at the Ateneo and visit a well-established microfinance cooperative in Manila. Not long after, CBN employed the services of their Ateneo trainers, SEDPI, to capacitate its staff on microfinance.
The partnership with CBN allowed SEDPI to visit Nigeria, a country with a population of 140 million (2006) and a per capital GDP of $694 (2005). The first of two sets of trainings was held on March 2007, with topics including Fundamental and Methodologies of Microfinance, Financial Product Design, and Financial Analysis. The trainings ran for two weeks, and were held in Lagos, Nigeria. In its reviews, the topics were seen as “very promising, interesting, and relevant.” Further, the participants commented that the speakers gave “excellent presentations” and have “deep knowledge” of the topics.
The second leg of the trainings was again held in Lagos, this time on the topics of Delinquency Management, Risk Management for Microfinance Institutions, and Managing, Developing, and Supervising Microfinance Staff. The trainings are best summarized by a comment made by one participant: “The lectures were enlightening, and the manner of presentation was refreshing.”
Talks are now underway of providing regular trainings to CBN staff in the future. With the help of SEDPI’s capacity building, it is hoped that the Central Bank of Nigeria be one day a key proponent of microfinance in their country.