SEDPI conducted a week-long organizational appraisal for a Leyte-based microfinance institution, the Fatima Multi purpose Cooperative (FMPC). In partnership with the Small Business Corporation (SBC), the appraisal ran from June 6 \u2013 12, 2013 covering areas where FMPC operates, from the rural towns of Calubian and Palompon to the cities of Naval and Tacloban.<\/p>\n
Organizational Appraisal (OA) is one of the main services that SEDPI provides. OA touches on internal and external on-the-ground information relevant to the effectiveness and efficiency of a microfinance institution. This includes gauging the impact of microfinance to clients, and evaluating internal management procedures versus good practices in the industry.<\/p>\n
For FMPC, clients come from varied backgrounds such as fishermen, farmers, government employees and micro entrepreneurs who are mostly sari-sari store owners. Based on SEDPI\u2019s findings, clients experienced improvement in their economic well-being compared to when they were not members of the cooperative. Results also show that a majority of the clients invested their loans for income generating activities like purchase of new equipment or the expansion of their business. In rural Palompon where FMPC\u2019s clientele base is composed mostly of fishermen, loans were used to buy or repair fishing boats locally referred to as \u201clantsa\u201d. This increased income by lessening the cost of boat rent and allowing more members of the family to engage in fishing. Meanwhile, other clients used the loan for educational purposes of their children such as tuition fees, daily allowances, and school supplies. FMPC clients were also able to make household improvements: house repairs, expansion, and better access to water and electricity. The usual reasons for client dropouts are delinquency due to paying multiple loans and unforeseen calamities. This proves true especially for farmers that experience crop failure during the typhoon season.<\/p>\n
In terms of microfinance operations, SEDPI identified key improvement areas for FMPC such as providing internal staff training based on knowledge and skill gaps, financial management for middle and top managers, delinquency management, management information systems, internal controls and human management. Nevertheless, FMPC gathers an overall high satisfaction rating from its clients.<\/p>\n
From SBC, the Department Manager Ms. Josie Vengco comments on SEDPI\u2019s consultancy work for FMPC, \u201cI like SEDPI\u2019s methodology of micro-assessment, planning interventions based on the needs of the organizations and by studying the details. The gist of the information is embedded in the details. \u201d <\/i>She also agrees with SEDPI that the challenge for most MFIs, especially cooperatives, are dealing with high delinquency and client exit. \u201cFMPC is just one of the many MFIs that have to deal with client dropouts, this can be due to geographical challenges like having scattered areas<\/i>.\u201d All the same, Ms. Vengco is looking forward to the full results of the research in order to pursue further capacity building programs for SBC\u2019s borrowers, including FMPC.<\/p>\n
These organizational appraisal findings suggest next capacity building activities for FMPC in the comings months focusing on the creation of strategies that will enable FMPC to provide more efficient and effective financial services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEDPI conducted a week-long organizational appraisal for a Leyte-based microfinance institution, the Fatima Multi purpose Cooperative (FMPC). In partnership with the Small Business Corporation (SBC), the appraisal ran from June 6 \u2013 12, 2013 covering areas where FMPC operates, from the rural towns of Calubian and Palompon to the cities of Naval and Tacloban. Organizational […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microfinance"],"yoast_head":"\n