43rd Midi de Microfinance to Deal with Exporting Financial Expertise to African Countries

The 43rd Midi de Microfinance will focus on the exportation of Luxembourg financial expertise to countries in Africa; this will take place on Wednesday 18 April 2018 at the Auditorium of the Banque de Luxembourg from 12:00-14:00.

The upcoming Midi de Microfinance, organised by ADA, will look at the ways in which knowledge of the financial world can be exported to countries in the southern hemisphere to help the poor.

Indeed, Luxembourg is now one of the world's leading financial markets, with known and recognised expertise in asset management. Moreover, in view of the interest generated by microfinance, more than 50% of microfinance investment funds are now domiciled in the Grand Duchy.

All microfinance institutions (MFIs) make decisions to manage their entire operations in order to achieve financial profitability and social impact. However, they operate in a constantly changing environment in which they must manoeuvre cautiously to reduce financial and operational risks. Effective risk management is a determining factor in the viability of an institution. Applied properly, it also enhances the MFI's credibility in the marketplace and generates new growth opportunities.

With this in mind, House of Training - ATTF has developed, in collaboration with ADA and ALRiM (Luxembourg Association for Risk Management), a coaching project on risk management applied to microfinance institutions in Africa.

Throughout this afternoon, ADA will rely on a concrete example of coaching that took place between a financial consultant specialised in risk management with recognised expertise in banking in Europe and worldwide, and a Togolese microfinance institution, the Coopérative d’Epargne et de Crédit des Artisans (CECA). CECA has used this coaching programme to better manage the risks associated with the decline in financial performance.

To conclude the debate, the two main speakers will present together the concrete results that resulted from this coaching and the measures implemented within the institution at the end of this period. The speakers will be Philippe Gérard, consultant and teacher in risk management and finance, and Yombo Odanou, General Manager of CECA in Lome (Togo) and President of the APSFD-Togo (Professional Association of Decentralised Financial Systems).

The round table will be moderated by Luc Vandeweerd, advisor to the management of ADA (Luxembourg). Patrick Felten, Head of Risk Management at Banque de Luxembourg, will introduce the debate, whilst Ben Lyon, Director, Head of ATTF Services - House of Training in Luxembourg, will close the conference.

The conference will be delivered in French.