Stakeholders would today converge at the Kimbima Hotel in Freetown to evaluate microfinance project “development of sustainable pro-poor financial sector in Sierra Leone for the period of 2004-2009”.
The national microfinance forum is being hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with KFW, UNCDF, Cord Aid and the government of Sierra Leone.
Today’s meeting aims at harmonizing concerns of stakeholders and also building a national shared vision for the microfinance sector by discussing critical issues of the project implementation.
The outcome of the forum, which ends tomorrow, will form the basis for revising and updating the project document to align it with the strategies and activities of the national vision for microfinance.
The goal of the project is to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by reducing poverty by half by 2015 through the provision of increased access to competitive and sustainable financial services to poor and low-income people for micro and small businesses.
A UNDP press release says “microfinance has been identified as a major tool for poverty reduction in developing countries especially Sierra Leone whose economy is largely cash-based and with limited opportunities for financial services for the poor.”