Second Pricing Transparency Leadership Forum in Nairobi, Kenya
MFTransparency, in partnership with Planet Rating and under the sponsorship of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), will host the second African Microfinance Pricing Transparency Leadership Forum in Nairobi, Kenya from June 18th – 19th 2013.The event will bring together leading regulator, policymakers, and microfinance experts with the objective of facilitating the development and implementation of pricing disclosure policies for African microfinance markets. Ms. Caroline Rozières, Microfinance Investment Officer at AFD in Paris, and Mr. Chuck Waterfield, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MFTransparency, will be making the opening remarks for the forum.
The second African Microfinance Pricing Transparency Leadership Forum will build on the previous event, which took place in October 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya, and shall provide policymakers and regulators with the opportunity to provide feedback on new developments in their markets and exchange their experiences in facilitating client protection and pricing disclosure in the microfinance industry. The regulators and policy makers attending this forum represent 7 African countries, as well as a range of experts from other regions.
The content of the forum includes:
- Training on pricing transparency calculations and pricing disclosure policy development
- Working sessions under the theme of policies for improve pricing and stakeholder decision-making, including means of constraining lenders (through truth-in-lending approaches and interest rate caps) and the different means of communication to the client and to the market
- Working group exercises for applying the knowledge generated from the event to the development of pricing disclosure policy
The African Microfinance Pricing Transparency Leadership Forum is organized by a Steering Committee composed of representatives of MFTransparency, AFD, AFMIN, CGAP and UNCDF.
“Transparent and comparable pricing is key to the protection of microfinance clients,” said Yves Boudot, Director of AFD’s Sub-Saharan Africa Department. “This Forum constitutes a unique opportunity for African Microfinance Leaders to exchange experiences and develop policies for transparent pricing disclosure in their local markets. It will help to build standards for the African microfinance industry and for donors committed to fostering responsible practices in microfinance.”
Emmanuelle Javoy, Managing Director of Planet Rating, commented “The detailed and standardized microcredit pricing data gathered by MTTransparency in partnership with Planet Rating finally allows having a clear picture of the current pricing structure of microfinance market across Sub-Saharan Africa. This very rich database is a gold mine for anyone who wants to help microfinance move towards more transparency. It can notably be used by regulators at the time of creating or updating Truth-in-Lending legislations adapted to the realities of microfinance.”
Chuck Waterfield commented “Our first conference with the same group of regulators generated both a higher level of understanding of the complexities of pricing in microfinance and a great deal of interest in how to shape legislation to fix market flaws and make the microfinance market work more smoothly and transparently. This follow-up event will assist legislators as they move forward in that process.”
The African Microfinance Pricing Transparency Leadership Forum is part of a larger MFTransparency initiative, also funded by AFD, called the African Regulator Project. Through this project, MFTransparency seeks a lasting impact on the policy and practice of pricing disclosure and client protection in microfinance in Africa. Our goal is to work with policymakers and regulators so that the interests of different stakeholder groups, including clients, financial institutions and funders, are met in a resilient and transparent microfinance industry.
The second African Microfinance Pricing Transparency Leadership Forum is a closed event, attendance is by invitation only.
WHAT CRITERIA WAS APPLIED IN PICKING COUNTRIES? BECAUSE NIGERIA IS NOT THERE, AND I’M WONDERING WHY. IS IT THE USURY LAW OR IS THERE ANOTHER REASON ?
The countries involved in this Forum were those where we collected pricing data using a grant that covered these eight of the 50+ countries in Africa. We do hope to expand our coverage of countries on the continent, both to collect and publish data as well as to include them in future regulator conferences. Perhaps Nigeria will be in a future round, but as with any initiative, that depends on the availability of donor funding.
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