MFTransparency partners with African Microfinance Network

Microfinance Focus, September 30, 2010: MFTransparency and The Africa Microfinance Network (AFMIN) have announced their partnership to promote pricing transparency in microfinance throughout Africa. AFMIN will support MFTransparency by encouraging its members to participate in the Transparent Pricing Initiative and MFTransparency will provide training on interest rate calculations and pricing transparency to AFMIN members.

MFTransparency recently launched Transparent Pricing Initiatives in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Malawi. The projects in Senegal and Burkina Faso are part of a broader Initiative sponsored by Luxembourg Cooperation and aimed at bringing pricing transparency to eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) including Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Niger.

The launch of the Transparent Pricing Initiative in Malawi marks the start of the enabling APR & EIR Program (enabling Africa to Price Responsibly & Educate on Interest Rates). This project, sponsored by The MasterCard Foundation, will address issues of pricing transparency in eight additional Sub-Saharan African countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Mozambique.

MFTransparency will continue to engage AFMIN members and their member institutions through directed support in each participating country. In the next several months, MFTransparency and AFMIN will co-host a training workshop for AFMIN members.

“This partnership with AFMIN embodies the spirit of our projects in Africa as a collaborative effort to strengthen microfinance markets throughout the region,” said MFTransparency Vice President Alexandra Fiorillo. “AFMIN’s leadership role in client protection will be a valuable asset to the Transparent Pricing Initiative across Africa.”

AFMIN, has brought together more than 1,000 microfinance institutions to form a strong voice on performance standards, best practices, innovations for capacity building and the adoption of pro-poor policy measures across the continent.

MFTransparency is a global initiative for responsible and transparent pricing in the microfinance industry. MFTransparency collects data on the interest and fees charged on each microfinance loan product in order to calculate the accurate, true price (Effective Interest Rate) on those loans.

© 2010, Microfinance News. All rights reserved. 2008-09