MENU

13TH ANNUAL GLOBAL MICROFINANCE FORUM

13th ANNUAL GLOBAL MICROFINANCE FORUM

16th & 17th of March 2017
Prague, Czech Republic

Summary

At present, microfinance is facing significant changes: new products are being developed and launched by MFIs; more and more traditional financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions are getting involved in microfinance; national authorities are developing and tightening up regulations in order to facilitate and speed up further financial sector development.

Uniglobal’s 2-day forum will cover a wide range of topics which makes this forum appealing to MFIs and banks, as well as to private investors and development organizations. Included in the speakers are the largest private and public investors in microfinance, commercial banks and development organizations from all over the world.

Watch the video

Agenda

DAY 1

Global microfinance market outlook

  • Predictions and growth
  • Geographical segmentation and analysis of the microfinance market:
    APAC, Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Central Asia & Caucasus
  • Growth drivers, challenges and trends
  • MFI outlooks in different regions
  • Regional microfinance developments

Role of financial inclusion in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs)

  • How MFIs can help to achieve the SDGs
  • Usage of digital payments
  • Identifying further opportunities for investment into MFIs

Digital currencies: how can they help the development of financial inclusion

  • Regulation and advantages of virtual currencies for MFIs
  • How do digital currencies further financial inclusion?
  • Reducing costs by partnering with mobile wallet providers and remittance companies
  • How will the underbanked population benefit from access to digital currencies?
  • The potential and challenges of digital money and blockchain technology

Shifting towards Internet-based strategies

  • Extending MFIs’ communication and marketing channels
  • Discover new and upgrade existing delivery channels
  • Learn new tools, technology and data analytics to launch new products & services
  • Internet-based loan providers and their social responsibility
  • What is their input?

Successful implementation of Management Information System (MIS): Provider & small MFI perspectives

  • What were the steps for successfully implementing MIS in MFIs?
  • What were the challenges and how were they overcome them?
  • To what extent should MFIs be upgraded technologically?
  • An evaluation of achieved results

Credit scoring in microfinance and the role of credit bureaus in financial inclusion

  • Improving the legal and regulatory framework for credit information sharing
  • Using scoring system to drive down costs of MFIs and increasing financial inclusion
  • Over-indebtedness and credit information to deliver responsible lending

MFI /Bank experiences in overcoming 5 top challenges: practical examples step by step

  • Operational challenges for MSME and large MFIs
  • Decreasing the cost of operations by using digital technology and achieving profitability
  • Creating an adequate risk management methodology
  • Improving portfolio quality and decreasing PAR (portfolio at risk)
  • Implementation of innovative products
  • Improving internal processes

Focus on client needs and consumer protection, regulation & data privacy

  • The customer experience, financial capability and consumer protection
  • Social impact measurement
  • Role of the regulator

INTERACTIVE SPOTLIGHT SESSION ON MFIs & INVESTORS

Increasing interaction and providing pre-prepared questions for MFIs and Investors MFIs: understanding investment criteria, geographical focus, development objectives, social responsibility, timelines, procedural frameworks and other questions Investors: regulatory environments, social responsibility, performance of MFIs at different levels, corporate governance

DAY 2

Dual mandate of investors: social impact & gaining profit. Financial literacy and education: practical examples

  • What are the new developments in financial literacy?
  • How are MFIs measuring financial literacy?
  • How do MFIs learn from the experience gained?
  • How financial literacy develops in the future measurement?
  • Measuring and further developing financial literacy
  • Social performance: how to deal with it?
  • How to collect information on social performance

Environment management and MFIs: green microfinance

  • Achieving triple bottom line: economic development, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability
  • Green microfinance opportunities for different microfinance markets

Financing gap for MSMEs

  • Increase MSME access to microfinance
  • The role of crowdfunding in MSME finance

Crowdfunding platforms and alternative financing

  • Opportunities for creating friendly regulatory frameworks for crowdfunding possibilities
  • Financial technology possibilities
  • Establishing business models to deliver growth
  • Future perspectives of crowdfunding in different regions

Hedging currency risk in a highly volatile environment

  • Risk management: which hedging tools are international financiers using for these challengingcountries?
  • Role of local funding
  • Is there a possibility of cooperation between local and international funding?

INTERACTIVE SPOTLIGHT SESSION ON MFIs & INVESTORS

Increasing interaction and providing pre-prepared questions for MFIs and Investors MFIs: understanding investment criteria, geographical focus, development objectives, social responsibility, timelines, procedural frameworks and other questions Investors: regulatory environments, social responsibility, performance of MFIs at different levels, corporate governance

PANEL DISCUSSION AND DISCUSSION OF SUMBITTED QUESTIONS ON DAY 1: FUTURE CHALLENGES AND HOW MICROFINANCE WILL LOOK IN 10 YEARS?

  • Growth path
  • Sustainability for different markets
  • What is the strategy for MFIs? What is the strategy for investors in different regions?
  • HAVE ANY TOPIC SUGGESTIONS?

Speakers

null

Kawien Ziedses des Plantes

Social Performance and Capacity Building deputy director
Oikocredit International, The Netherlands

null

Gerben Hieminga

Senior Economist
ING Bank, The Netherlands

null

Craig Chelius

Executive Director
Mifos Initiative, USA

null

Peter Heijen

CEO
Lendahand, The Netherlands

null

Constanze Lehmann

Business Development
Mambu, Germany

null

Arturo Liguori

Member of the Board. New development product manager
Galileo Network, Italy

null

Kathleen Yaworsky

Global Manager, Digital Solutions
Accion, USA

null

Mike Gama-Lobo

Vice President & Regional Director for Africa

Finca, Tanzania

null

Florian Grohs

Development finance consultant
Netherlands

null

Arnaud Poissonnier

Chairman and Founder
Babyloan, France

null

Joana Rosenkranz

Head of International Student Recruitment
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Germany

null

Tara Lacey

Global Accounts Manager
Software Group, Bulgaria

null

Bernhard Jacob Eikenberg

Fund Manager
Bamboo Capital Partners, Germany

null

TBA

–

responsAbility, France

null

Markus Aschendorf

Head of Division
Financial Systems Development
KfW Bankengruppe, Germany

null

Vincenzo Trani

Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Mikro Kapital, Luxembourg

null

Christoph Eckart

Senior Fund Manager
C-QUADRAT Asset Management GmbH, Austria

null

Stefan Martiniak

CEO
CJSC “The First MicroCredit Company”, Kyrgyzstan

Where and when

Prague, Czech Republic
16th & 17th of March 2017

GRANDIOR PRAGUE HOTEL
Na Poříčí 42, 110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic
Phone: +420 226 295 111, Fax: +420 226 295 111
E-mail: reception@hotel-grandior.cz
www.hotel-grandior.cz

View on map or
Book hotel

Partners/Media Partners

Said about event

''Very satisfied and well structured.''

Director, MKF Sunrise, Bosnia and Herzegovina

“Very interesting, informative and useful. Touching important and critical points.”
Senior business consultant, Creditinfo, Czech Republic

“It was a very intyersting event and I will try to attend more events in the future.”
Head of business development
Natech SA. Greece

“Nicely organized event. It was a very interesting conference, high level speakers and useful experience.”
Head of financial inclusion, Creditinfo, Kenya

“Congrats, Excellent forum, I am taking lots of great ideas with me.”
Member of the board, Smart Credit, Austria

“I would like to express my appreciation of the event, in particular the high organisational standard, the impressive quality of speakers, and a diverse body of participants. Well done to you and your colleagues at Uniglobal! It was my pleasure to be associated with your event.”
Head of Microfinance Unit, EIB, Luxembourg

“The forum presented many networking opportunities to Software Group and we were able to focus on building up quite a few new valuable partnerships. Thank you for these opportunities!”
Business Development Tenders Manager, Software Group, Bulgaria

“It has been a pleasure to participate in your event which demonstrates a high level of professionalism!”
CEO, First Microcredit Company, Kyrgyzstan

“Attending 12th Annual Global Microfinance Forum was very valuable and left me a precious experience. I am looking forward to attending future events held by Uniglobal.”
Director, Credit Guarantee Fund of Mongolia

Hospitality team

null

Kristina Polikhronidi

Event Manager

+420 226 220 420

kristina@uni-global.eu

null

Gaukhar Tulegenova

Production Manager

+420 226 220 465

gaukhar@uni-global.eu

null

Pavel Isachkin

Sales Manager

+420 226 220 430

pavel@uni-global.eu