The microfinance sector in Afghanistan is going through a period of reform. This is due largely to the consequences of an early emphasis on rapidly achieving operational sustainability through growth in client numbers and loans made. This focus reduced attention given to issues of portfolio quality, accountability, and meeting client interests, and was coupled with a lack of acknowledgement of the existing informal credit market. All of this laid the foundation for the current problems that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are facing with increasing client default rates and, in some cases, fraud.

Read the rest of the report and download the study from this link.

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In early 2009, we began as a proposition on paper, with the single goal of bringing solutions to the Microfinance sector.    Thanks to the  investors (Intellecap) for believing in a concept that was just a spreadsheet 9 months ago.  Thank you to all clients for your faith in a new concept.  Thanks to the students who had complete faith in us and trusted their careers to us (we are glad we could deliver on what we promised you).   All team members of MTA who have worked hard to do all of the above –  the success of MTA is the biggest form of recognition and appreciation for you.

Today MTA has a monthly capacity of training and deploying 500 Loan Officers. We look forward to scaling this capacity further, as we know that the microfinance sector needs much more than this.

We have grown from 1 single location in Jaipur, Rajasthan to a presence in 9 locations across 5 states today.   Knowing that this is not enough, we will continue to identify and grow into new geographies this year.

Thank you to all those who have supported us through your thoughts, suggestions and good wishes.  We look forward to meeting and exceeding your expectations in 20 10.

All is well !!

Amit Mathur

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MTA is now positioned to source, train and deploy resources in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Contact MTA – email info at microfinancetraining.com

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/10/how_india_is_tackling_their_ed.html

(link updated on 23rd Oct)

So when Knowledge @ Wharton came out with an article outlining some success stories in this area, it was a delightful reading for all of us at MTA.   In this well written piece, EGMM of Andhra Pradesh, who we know as doing some fantastic work in this space have been profiled.

Some interesting excerpts from this article :-

• There are 122 million 20-to-25 year olds in India. Of these, 70 million are from the rural poor.
• In a country with a billion-plus population, an estimated 88.5 million people between the ages of 15 and 29 need to be trained. But only a very small fraction receives vocational training, according to Narendra Jadhav, a member of the government’s Planning Commission.
• Only 11% of those between 17 and 23 years old enroll in higher education.
• TeamLease, a staffing company in Bangalore, says 58% of India’s youth are not prepared for work or suffer from some kind of skill deprivation.
• And while around 14 million people enter the workforce every year, only 7% work in the organized sector.

A link to the article is below

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4408#