IFC, African Central Banks to promote credit reporting, financial access in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania

Microfinance Focus, March 6, 2010: IFC has launched a series of programs this weekend in cooperation with the central banks of Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania aimed at increasing the quality of credit reporting in Africa. The lack of credit information hinders banks from widely offering financial services, improved reporting and creditworthiness.

IFC has co-hosted a series of regional workshops that brought together central banks, financial institutions, national bankers’ associations, and commercial banks. Workshops began on March 1 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and conclude on March 5 in Maputo, Mozambique. Sessions included best practices in credit reporting and how credit reporting can increase financial services for small and medium businesses in Africa.

The IFC-World Bank Doing Business in 2010 report ranked Tanzania 87 out of 183 countries surveyed for ease of getting credit. Ethiopia and Mozambique were equally ranked at 127, Ethiopia and Tanzania have virtually no public or private credit registry coverage, while Mozambique’s has only 2.3% coverage of adults through a public registry.

“These workshops are timed to coincide with efforts by the central banks of Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania to design or implement credit information sharing systems in their countries,” said Ulrich Zeisluft, IFC Principal Financial Specialist. “IFC’s global experiences will help them define perceptions and strategy.”

Each workshop was co-hosted with the Central Bank-National Bank of Ethiopia, Banco de Moçambique, and Bank of Tanzania. Speakers included IFC and World Bank experts, executives from global and African banks, credit bureaus, and international risk management specialists.

The IFC Africa Credit Bureau Program expects to increase lending to SMEs by US$ 20,000,000 reaching 5000 SMEs in Tanzania and by US$ 15,000,000 reaching 3750 SMEs in Mozambique.

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