Remy 
Mitima, who serves as Board Chair of the Congolese microfinance institution Paidek, has attended all three SAMs. He explains, “In Arusha, I met partners who ended up loaning us a total of USD 500,000 in two phases. This helped us strengthen our credit portfolio and serve more people. Today, we have an additional loan from the same partners.”
At the second SAM in Dakar, Remy and his team strengthened their relationship with other organizations that may help with the evolution of the MFI’s technology. Musoni is one group with which they began discussions, but Paidek hasn’t moved forward in this area yet due to budget constraints.
At the most recent SAM in Addis, Remy says his team learned “a lot about lending to youth.” As a result, the institution has resolved to adjust its methods for working with young people. Paidek has submitted an application to the UN to support these changes and now is waiting for a reply. Attendees from Paidek also met with old and new partners regarding the organization’s transformation from an NGO into a for-profit entity, which remains ongoing.
Paidek, which is headquartered in the city of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was founded in 1996 and now has nine branches. The institution has total assets of USD 5.3 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 3.9 million outstanding to 15 million borrowers and USD 500,000 held for 980 depositors.
Remy 
also serves as President of the Microfinance African Institutions Network (MAIN). MAIN, which is a co-organizer of SAM, officially merged with Africa Microfinance Transparency during the most recent SAM. Based in Togo, MAIN has 84 members with an aggregate loan portfolio of USD 1.26 billion outstanding to 3.2 million customers in 23 countries.
ADA, an NGO based in Luxembourg, co-organizes SAM every two years with the support of Luxembourg’s Ministry for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs. The SAM steering committee members are: ADA, Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Microfinance African Institutions Network and the African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association. The Fédération des APSFD de l’Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine is about to join the steering committee as well. We invite you to read more about SAM at http://www.microfinance-africa.org/.
This vignette is part of a sponsored series demonstrating the value of SAM (the French acronym for African Microfinance Week), a major conference dedicated to financial inclusion in Africa. The first three SAMs were held in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2013; Dakar, Senegal, in 2015; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2017. The next SAM will take place in 2019 in a location to be announced soon!
The goal of SAM is to provide a unified platform for addressing issues facing microfinance in Africa by bringing together investors, MFIs, researchers, banks, networks, innovators, governments and other stakeholders.
The 2017 SAM hosted 700 participants from 58 (mostly African) countries, including representatives of 200 MFIs; 25 exhibitors at the Innovation Fair; and 26 investors, who made 170 MFI contacts at the Investor’s Fair. The proceedings also included conference sessions presented by 60 speakers plus a menu of 20 training programs.
Additional Resources
SAM
http://www.microfinance-africa.org/
MicroCapital coverage of SAM
http://www.microcapital.org/category/semaine-africaine-de-la-microfinance-sam/
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