Training programme for microfinance managers

Updated on: Thursday, June 11, 2009

Seattle, WA and New Delhi: Unitus, Inc, an international nonprofit organisation dedicated to reducing global poverty by accelerating access to microfinance and NIS Sparta, Asia's leading training provider, announced the launch of an innovative professional training programme for microfinance branch managers. The first of its kind in the microfinance industry, this programme will give practitioners access to world-class management training designed specifically for microfinance professionals.

“Through our work with 24 microfinance institution (MFI) partners, we have found professional training for branch managers to be a critical gap in the sector,” says Ed Bland, President of Unitus. “Providing management training through the Unitus/NIS Sparta program to microfinance professionals who have management responsibilities and daily contact with borrowers will improve effectiveness and retention within growing MFIs. “

The Unitus/NIS Sparta Management Training Program consists of three instructor-lead courses conducted over eight days. Course curriculum is tiered and encompasses managerial and interpersonal communication, teamwork, and performance coaching. Over the course of a year, the programme was designed and piloted in a collaborative effort between Unitus, its microfinance institution partners, and the training experts at NIS Sparta, who have trained emerging leaders across leading companies such as HCBC, Toyota, Cheveron, Shell, Maruti Suzuki India, among many others.

“The purpose of the partnership is to enable growth of the MFI’s, by bringing together Unitus’s deep expertise in accelerating the growth of microfinance institutions and NIS Sparta’s proven track-record in performance enhancement, through training and capacity building,” says Muralidhar Rao, COO and President of NIS Sparta. “We believe that this initiative will help MFI’S achieve their mission critical goals, through enhanced effectiveness of their people and processes. We are happy to have partnered Unitus in this pioneering initiative. We believe that Microfinance sector will require more such interventions to unlock the potential.”

“There is a great need in the microfinance industry to develop managers with first level supervisory skills,” said Samit Ghosh, Managing Director of Ujjivan Financial Services, a Unitus partner and participant in the pilot training programme, “Being a nascent industry, a large number of branch managers and department heads are promoted from within and need to be trained and equipped to effectively execute the responsibilities of leading a team. Unitus and NIS Sparta, working with us to customize the training programme for microfinance institutions, have done an excellent job. We intend use this program extensively at Ujjivan.”

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Training programme for microfinance managers

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