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Economics: Kenya Microfinance
Kenya to host conference on the future of Microfinance in Africa

NAIROBI, June 4 (Xinhua/GNA) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki will on Thursday officially open a day long conference on microfinance in Africa.
A brief statement from the presidency said on Wednesday the meeting, which brings together 400 local, regional and international leaders, will provide the participants with an opportunity to understand and benefit from the leadership role Kenya has played in fostering a favorable climate for grassroots entrepreneurs to promote economic development and fight poverty.
The conference would also discuss and adopt a new study, on the African approach to microfinance, undertaken by the Africa Microfinance Action Forum (AMAF) and Women's World Banking (WWB) to boost opportunities and accessibility to financial products and services on the continent.
"Key among the issues lined up for discussion is the impact of the global economic slowdown on African microfinance institutions and remittance income sent home by African workers employed overseas," the statement said.
The statement said Her Royal Highness the Grand Duress of Luxembourg is also expected to address the conference.
The president and chief executive officer of Women's World Banking, Mary Ellen Iskenderian, heads a global network of 41 microfinance providers working in 29 countries to empower low- income entrepreneurs, particularly women.
She said ahead of the meeting that the Nairobi conference will bring a highly engaged group of African leaders and advisers to try to adopt strategies and policy suggestions that promote microfinance startups on the continent.
"The rationale behind the diagnostic we'll be discussing down in Nairobi later this week is: an industry exists. Why has it not developed quite as robustly as it has in so many other places in the world? So it's not a lack of institutions, but it's institutions that have not necessarily flourished," she said.
Iskenderian says that the study under discussion at the conference will try to take advantage of the particular social characteristics and regulatory structures that distinguish African communities from those in Asia and other regions to help encourage microfinance in Africa to keep pace with its growth in other parts of the world.
The effects of this year's global economic slowdown have impacted more slowly on African financial institutions, which are less engaged in flows from international capital markets and mainstream banks than are other parts of the world.
Compared with other areas, few of Africa's relatively small number of microfinance institutions, have been directly hit by the world crisis.
But Iskenderian explains that one area cited by her study group that is expected to feel the effects of the downturn is an expected drop in remittance income sent home by African workers employed overseas.