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MFI capacity building in Ghana
March 27, 2012

Newsletter N°3 Microfinance ACPEU | March 2012 - Training of 100 FASL staff through the REGMIFA TA Facility. Created in 1995 as a non-bank financial institution, FASL (First Allied Savings and Loans) nowadays is among the 3 largest Savings and Loans Institutions in Ghana, with over 14,500 borrowers. The targeted clientele of the institution are micro and small entrepreneurs receiving individual, group, consumer and educational loans provided by the mobilization of savings from the retail public. FASL has expanded geographically - holding 20 branches by the end of 2011 - and in terms of staff, starting off with 14 employees and now counting 532.

FASL has received a senior loan from REGMIFA in the amount of USD 1 million in September 2010. Furthermore, in order to continuously ensure good quality reporting and mitigation of operational and reputational risk, the Regmifa TA Facility approved a Management Information System (MIS) training project for the FASL.

The chosen consultant for the training project was Craft Silicon Kenya. The overall objective of the MIS training was to improve the FASL end users’ skills in using the MIS software, thus reducing the risks of errors. The administrators were supposed to improve their ability to administer, maintain and support the functions of the Bankers Realm MIS platform plus being able to train new users being hired for FASL themselves.

The training was aimed at providing a good understanding of the MIS to two groups of users: the administrators of the system – i.e. the IT manager and 2 IT assistant managers - and the end users (tellers, credit officers, branch managers, etc.). The 6 days training to the administrators included practical demonstrations, discussions and group exercises. The training for the end users was conducted during 2 weeks by a training consultant from Craft Silicon, assisted by the trained
administrators of FASL in order to ensure knowledge transfer. The training was delivered in 3 different branches, covering 3 regions: the Adum branch gathering a total 50 people from different branches in its region; the Takoradi branch gathering 20 people and the Accra branch with a total of 30 people, making up a total amount of 100 people being trained. The mode of training was the same as for the administrators: classroom based instructor led training with practical demonstrations.

The project got approved by the Regmifa TA Facility in the 2nd quarter of 2011 and was completed by the end of 2011. The overall objectives of the training were reached and the cooperation between Craft Silicon, FASL and the TA Facility Team was satisfactory. The costs of the project accrued to a total amount of EUR 32,385 of which a substantial portion was co-financed by FASL.

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