MicroFinance Transparency to drive transparent pricing in Africa

MicroFinance Transparency (MFTransparency) will host a training workshop in Nairobi on oct. 19 in association with the 2009 AMT Microfinance Investor’s Fair to train industry professionals on pricing transparency and consumer protection. It will also mark the launch of MFTransparency’ s Transparent Pricing Initiative in Kenya.The fair provides an opportunity for MFTransparency to conduct its transparent pricing initiative for the first time in Africa. MFTransparency has been coordinating closely with other AMT conference workshops, including ADA/AMT’s Rating Awareness Raising meeting and the Social Performance Task Force workshop which will directly precede the MFTransparency seminar.MFTransparency Vice-President Alexandra Fiorillo said, “We look forward to the opportunity to implement our Transparent Pricing Initiative in Kenya’s dynamic and robust microfinance market and expect Kenya will proudly lead the way for pricing transparency in Africa. A successful implementation of pricing transparency in Kenya will help pave the way for other African microfinance markets to demonstrate their commitment to consumer protection.”

During MFTransparency’ s Transparent Pricing Initiative, the group will collect data on interest and fees charged on each microfinance loan product in Kenya in order to calculate the accurate, true price (Effective Interest Rate) on those loans. MFTransparency will then post that data on its website (www.mftransparency .org).

The microfinance industry in Kenya is worth over $500 million in loans. It has one million active borrowers and about four million savers. Thousands of organizations, including NGOs, non-bank financial institutions, Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) and commercial banks, actively administer microfinance services in Kenya.