Brigit Helms

Microfinance and Risk Management: A Client Perspective

As the microfinance industry matures, service providers are increasingly concerned with developing new and better products. This focus on new product development is a response to growing competition in the microfinance market, the search for more defined market niches, and some anxiety about dropout rates.

CGAP’s Pilot Microfinance Capacity-Building Initiative in Africa

In April 1997, the CGAP Secretariat launched an experiment called the CGAP Pilot Microfinance Capacity-building Initiative in Africa. The initiative spanned East and West Africa and focused primarily on working with African training institutes to provide financial management courses to microfinance institutions (MFIs). The Pilot Initiative sought to build the foundation for the development of a market for quality training and technical assistance services offered on a sustainable basis in the region.

Cost Allocation for Multi-Service Microfinance Institutions

Using examples from the field and an actual microfinance institution (MFI) -- BRAC -- this Occasional Paper explores alternative answers to a series of questions that MFI managers should ask themselves regarding the allocation of costs and assets among cost centers and the impact of cost allocation on the financial statements of multiservice MFIs.

Anatomy of a Microfinance Deal

What is the best way to support a microfinance institution (MFI) that has a track record of extending quality financial services to significant numbers of poor people on a progressively financially sustainable basis?

Financial Sustainability, Targeting the Poorest, and Income Impact

Can microfinance institutions (MFIs) achieve financial sustainability and reach the poorest of the poor? What are the tradeoffs in pursuing these two goals simultaneously? These are among the key questions addressed by David Hulme and Paul Mosley in their recent book, Finance Against Poverty (London: Routledge, 1996). The findings of this book have sparked a lot of discussion among microfinance specialists. The objective of this note is to bring these findings to a wider readership. It is not a review of the book and should not be considered as such.