Microfinance companies trained in digital services

Microfinance professionals from Jamaica, Grenada, Montserrat, and Suriname were trained in design, implementation, and management of digital financial services (DFS) at a recent two-day workshop, hosted by the Caribbean Microfinance Alliance (CMFA) and held recently at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston.

The workshop was part of the CMFA’s strategy to introduce new technologies to microfinance institutions to enable them to become more efficient, and provide greater value and convenience to their customers.

“The CMFA supports capacity building and training, hence we mounted this training session to enhance access to the services offered by our members and to increase efficiency in their companies,” said Kadian Dyke, a board member of CMFA.

“Mobile devices and smartphones are extremely popular in the Caribbean and can provide technological solutions to our members, to ensure that they have more access to the formal financial system. This will help us to improve economies of scale for our operations and further develop microfinance in the region,” she added.

Dyke said the technology workshop was the first of its kind that the CMFA was hosting for its members.

exposure to members

“We intend to have more workshops like these because they expose our members to international best practices. With respect to digital financial services in particular, we see this as a necessary step for all our members, in keeping with our view that client service and client convenience should come first in any microfinance operation,” Dyke said.

“In this sense, all microfinance companies across the Caribbean would benefit from the DFS workshop, which will bring them up to date with trends in finance and technology (fintech),” she added.

Angel Bisamaza, workshop instructor and an associate consultant of the Amarante Group, a Dubai-based firm specialising in digital financial services, branchless banking and financial inclusion, noted that digital financial services should be embraced, as it would bring more MFI clients into the formal banking system.

“Thanks to technology, everyone is becoming a part of the financial system because mobile technology drives innovation and creates financial institutions adapted to change,” she said.