MICROFINANCE EVENT: 4th Annual African Microfinance Conference: Affordable Access to Finance for Low-income African Entrepreneurs to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in the Sub-Saharan Africa region from July 7-10th, 2009

Leonce Kone, Committee Chairman for the Fourth Annual African Microfinance Conference in Ouagadougou

July 7-10, 2009, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Sub-Saharan Africa)

After the African Microfinance Conferences held in Johannesburg (2003), Cape Town (2005) and in Kampala (2007), the Organizing Committee aims to continue discussions and topics of the previous conferences in order to provide a framework of present day experiences and challenges of microfinance in Africa.

Who is invited: Microfinance Practitioners, Researchers, Consultants, Academics, Government staff and Technical and Financial Partners to share ideas which can lead to the implementation of inclusive Microfinance for growth and wealth creation in Africa.

The conference will also focus on the issue of affordable access to financial services for the majority of small and medium African entrepreneurs (operating mostly in rural as well as in the urban areas). The committee views this issue as the biggest challenge in microfinance for the African continent, especially in rural areas.

Additional Agenda Highlights:

Transaction costs revisited – towards creating an efficient transactional platform to engage with poor and low-income clients (this also relates to the affordability aspect)

Enabling legislation – protecting African financial systems and stifling innovation. They raise this as an important topic within the reality of the financial crisis in the developed world and in anticipation of the reaction for stricter regulations due to the causes of the current crisis

Microfinance and food security – (including value chain finance and other aspects of microfinance). Also, the committee views food security as a focus in two areas: the ability to generate income to access food and the ability to produce food

Inclusion challenges in Africa – the role of different actors and methods and to ensure that we continue the theme started in 2005 by the United Nations and our second African Microfinance Conference

Collateral Management in Agricultural and Rural Finance in Africa – discussion on collateral substitutes that include aspects of access to land as well.

You can also send emails in French (ctmpb@fasonet.bf) and in English (katherine.blaine@up.ac.za) if you have any enquiries or you want to add your name to the address list for future communication on the conference.

Important Dates: Call for Paper: May 15, 2009; Acceptance notification: May 30, 2009; Submission completed papers: June 20, 2009; End of registrations: June 30, 2009

Note: The Conference will be offered in English and French with full translation services in all the formal conference venues.

Please visit the Centre for Microfinance for links to the conference and more information on calls for papers, registration dates and costs and general information on the conference as it becomes available as well as a report on the 3rd African Microfinance Conference that took place in Kampala in 2007.

About the Centre for Microfinance. The Centre for Microfinance is an international program, financed by the Microfinance Management Institute with partners in India, the Philippines and Costa Rica.

The Centre fulfils three core functions:

Education – developing and presenting courses in microfinance at formal and non-formal levels, including MBA Microfinance electives, a Certificate in Individual Microenterprise Lending, a Certificate Program in Microfinance Management and Executive Management Courses in Microfinance.

Research – undertaking research studies in different areas and on diverse aspects of banking services provision to the poor on a continent-wide collaborative basis. Here the focus is on market integration; on member based financial services; rural finance; legislation and regulation and access to finance and also SMME finance.

Dissemination of information – including research results in the form of conferences, workshops and publications.

For further information:

Barbara Calvin Tel: +27 12 420 5836
Katherine Blaine Tel: +27 12 420 3344
Fax: +27 12 420 2106

e-mail: katherine.blaine@up.ac.za

By Zoran Stanisljevic