Challenges Facing Officials of Microfinance: The Case of Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI), Ethiopia
Challenges Facing Officials of Microfinance: The Case of Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI), Ethiopia
Challenges Facing Officials of Microfinance: The Case of Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI), Ethiopia
org
ISSN 2222-1697 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2847 (Online)
Vol.6, No.15, 2015
Introduction
In recent year poverty, multidimensional phenomenon, is a continual problem and become a growing concern
overall the world, particularly in developing countries. Poverty can be defined as poor health, low income,
inadequate education, difficult or insecure work, political disempowerment, food insecurity (Alkire, 2011).
According to the estimates of the World Bank (2010), in the year 1981, more than half of the citizens in
developing world lived with less than $1.25 a day. The frequency of poverty is more in Africa than other
countries. In spite of a good remarkable progress, sub-Saharan Africa still accounts for more than one-third of
the world’s extreme poor (World Bank, 2013).
One of the identified constraints facing the poor while they struggle to move out of poverty is lack of
access to financial service from formal financial institutions, mostly access to credit and saving. Majority of the
people from developing countries are poor and when poor people have access to credit and other financial
services, they can earn more, build their assets, invest on their own future and cushion themselves against
poverty.
Accordingly microfinance institutions are considered as the main tool by developing countries to
overcome poverty through accessing financial service for the productive poor section of the society who are
affected by lack of access for credit and other related financial services.
Over the past decades, it is believed that the revolution of microfinance institutions changed the
attitude of different governments that poverty can be reduced through providing and assisting substantial flow of
credit and other related services to the poor in many countries. As a result, for more than 30 years, microfinance
has been portrayed as a logical approach through using policy and program intervention for poverty alleviation
(Bateman, 2011).
With respect to poverty reduction, it is the core objective of the Ethiopian government (MOFED,
2002) and strives to incorporate different poverty alleviating strategies within its development policies. Among
those programmes intervening with supplying credit for productive poor and giving them opportunity to save;
thereby ascertaining access to finance with microfinance institution is considered as one of the important tools
for curving poverty. This paper intends to identify challenges faced officials of microfinance institution during
their operation.
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microfinance institutions in the way of poverty alleviation with a particular reference of Amhara Credit and
Saving Institution (ACSI).
Research methods
A survey research design was used in the study. Questionnaire was an instrument to collect the data from a
sample of 100 ACSI officials who involved actively in the operation. To select the samples convenience
sampling technique were employed. The statistical package of SPSS was used to analyze the data and the
researcher was used descriptive statistics to interpret the result.
Literature Review
The increased attention for microfinance currently is because of its pioneer for development program as a
catalyst. Ledgerwood (1999) microfinance has evolved as an economic development approach intended to
benefit low-income women and men. Moreover, microfinance, according to Otero (1999) is “the provision of
financial services to low-income poor and very poor self-employed people”. These financial services according
to Ledgerwood (1999) generally include savings and credit but can also include other financial services such as
insurance and payment services.
Microfinance in Ethiopia
The concept of microfinance is not new in Ethiopia but, as an industry it is relatively new phenomenon.
Traditionally, people have saved with and taken small loans from informal channels for unexpected events from
the so called Iqub i.e. an association of people halving common objective mobilizing finance and distribute it to
members through rotating and Idir i.e. a funeral insurance established and operated by the volunteer community
(Emana, 2009).
Saving and credit services through cooperatives in Ethiopia took in 1950s (Welday, 2004). The first
saving and credit cooperative (SACCO) in Ethiopia was established by the employees of Ethiopian Airline in
1956 (Bezabih, 2012). International donors, NGOs and the government of Ethiopia have also supported the
expansion of credit and saving to the rural poor in the 1970s to 1990s. During the period the delivery of rural
credit i.e. input loans in Ethiopia was intervened through formal banks such as Agricultural and industrial
development bank.
The emergence and development of modern microfinance institution in Ethiopia is recent phenomenon
that happens because of formal financial system like commercial banking system was very limited and could not
address the financial need of poor households for the fact that they are not their ultimate target client.
By the end of 2012/13, as per the annual report of National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), 31 MFIs have
been registered with the national bank of Ethiopia and operate under the auspices of proclamation no. 40/1996 in
the country (rural and urban areas) and accordingly their total capital and total asset reached Birr 4.5 billion and
Birr 17.7 billion respectively. Deposit mobilization and credit offering activity also revealed a remarkable
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increment i.e. reached ETB 7.6 billion and 12.8 billion respectively.
The Ethiopian microfinance institution sector is characterized by its rapid escalation, significant saving
mobilization, an aggressive drive to achieve scale, a broad geographic coverage and an emphasis on rural
households. The increase in number of microfinance institution indicated that the Ethiopian microfinance
industry has undergone tremendous growth and development within a very short period of time and also revealed
that the emphasis the government given to the strategy to alleviate poverty and to bring economic development
in the country is increased from time to time.
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Sarker (2013) in his study attempted to explore pressure on loan officers in microfinance institution. Even loan
officers play diverse and significant role in microfinance institution; they faced several pressures from different
direction. Some of the pressures investigated under the study are meeting deadline, powerful hierarchical
pressure, reducing portfolio at risk , working more than normal working hours etc. All these types of pressure
reduce productivity, creates dissatisfaction with job, lower confidence, hamper relationship, and most
importantly attack personal life.
The study suggested some recommendation like proper implementation of Human Resource Policy and
Procedures, appropriate planning and supportive culture, effective communication and feedback, adequate staff
training and mentoring, following bottom-up approach, strengthening effective communication, logistic support
needs to be implemented seriously.
Mutambanadzo, Bhiri and Makunike (2013), analyzed challenges faced by zimbabwean micro finance
institutions in providing financial services to the poor and informal sector in the dollarized regime. A survey
research design was used in study and data were collected from 17 registered MFIs including one that collapsed.
The instruments to collect the data were questionnaires and interviews from key informants those are senior
managers and directors. The major findings were that MFIs are facing funding challenges, have poor corporate
governance structures and management Information Systems (MIS) have not been fully exploited. The major
conclusion drawn from the study was that lack of funding is the dominant factor hindering the growth and
development of MFIs in Zimbabwe. Accordingly, recommendation was suggested that MFIs must be adequately
regulated and be encouraged to have suitable governance structures in order to attract funding.
The major conclusion drawn from the above previous study was that microfinance institutions officials
faced many challenges.
Research results and findings
This section of the study discusses the descriptive statistics result. The major problems identified in the study are
categorized under three parts, namely, system related problem, client related problem and staff related problem.
Each of the problems is analyzed in detail below:
The questionnaires were distributed to 100 respondents who were selected using simple ransom
sampling. Out of 100 questionnaires distributed to sample respondents 97 questionnaires were filled and returned
and giving a response rate of 97%.
Interestingly, these possible challenges were classified under three catagories that had been identified
in this study. The table under shows the breakdown of the 24 possible challenges
Table 1 classification of the possible challenges identified
Constructs number of items under each construct
1. System related 13
2. Employee related 9
3. Client related 5
The questionnaire were comprised with two sections starting with demographic characteristics
followed by five point likert scale questions (1= strongly agreed, 2= Agree, 3= Undecided, 4= Disagree and 5=
strongly disagree).
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The second construct is challenges arisen from client related issues and it consisted nine items. As per
the descriptive result of the study i.e. norms about Loan by clients (mean= 2.2917, st.dev. = 1.19575), skill
problem of client /Lack of knowledge (mean= 2.8125, st.dev. = 1.55132), loans used in consumption, not
invested by client (mean= 2.6421, st.dev. = 1.43598), late payment of loan/ poor management of debt (mean=
2.5417, st.dev. = 1.36047), loan default/no to pay totally the loan (mean= 2.9479, st.dev. = 1.44637), uneven
population distribution (mean= 2.4688, st.dev. = 1.37641), arbitrarily form groups to get group loan, less trust
and then conflict of interest (mean= 2.8750, st.dev. = 1.50962), unwillingness to take consecutive training
(mean= 2.6979, st.dev. = 1.50871), production of client is un-diversified (mean= 2.6667, st.dev. = 1.41917) the
respondents perceived that all the nine items are challenges to the officials of the institution.
The third construct focused on employee related challenges and it contained 5 items. The descriptive
statistics result i.e. lack of personal relationship/ smooth approach with borrowers (mean= 3.6771, st.dev. =
1.30178), lack of motivation (mean= 3.9583, st.dev. = 1.27252), level of knowledge (mean= 3.3854, st.dev. =
1.46086), unwilling for working more than normal functioning office hours (mean= 4.0521, st.dev. = 1.29265),
lack of co ordination with different level management (mean= 3.6250, st.dev. = 1.40113) showed that all
respondents disagreed with the items that is the above items under the third construct are not perceived by
respondents as challenges for them.
The key findings from the survey suggested that there are several challenges arisen from the system
related construct of the organization. Among those, legal and regulation frame work is perceived as a challenge
by officials. The government and its agencies contributed to the successful design and implementation of the
regulatory frame work for microfinance institution because the regulatory frame work is necessary to ensure the
successful implementation of microfinance mission. But the regulatory frame work provided by proclamation
40/96 extremely cautious with several highly restrictive elements majorly confining MFIs to group lending and
high interest rate of 14.5 percent (2 percent above the commercial banking rate).
Respondents also agreed that in adequate infrastructure is one challenge for undertaking their
operation. MFIs intended to increase the coverage of its service is forced to operate small branches which are
physically linked by weak transportation and communication infrastructure. This situation is happen actually in
ACSI, so because of such inadequate infrastructure the loan officers and the supervisors are unable to perform
their task effectively. As a whole the institution faced difficulties to reach their existing and prospective clients.
Regarding to competition with commercial banks and others it is perceived by respondents as a
challenges facing officials of microfinance institutions. Because of the financial infrastructure designed by the
government and its stakeholder’s formal commercial banks have broad financial service and large amount of
asset that can reach greater number of location. Now a days in Ethiopia the expansion of commercial banks and
NGOs increased from time to time, as a result they become competent to the MFIs. Even clients tried challenge
the officials by comparing the services and other issues provided by the commercial banks and MFIs. Empirical
study by Marlaunda (2005) indicated that the more threatening competition for MFIs comes from formal
commercial institution not from informal money lenders. And this intensive competition in Ethiopia may lead
some MFIs out of market.
Loan collection method is the other item asked to the respondents to reflect their perception and found
an issue that becomes a challenge facing officials of ACSI. Around 56.3 % have positive response that they are
not able to collect as they want to do because of weak loan collection method.
Continuous skill development for staff is crucial for the success of the microfinance institution unless
it is difficult to achieve its objective. Accordingly, lack of skill development program for staff was also an issue
rose in the study and the respondents agreed for this issue as a challenge to accomplish their task properly. This
finding indicates that MFI staff working in market needs adequate training. The institution’s concerned body
should fix training program on different issues like developing competency, dealing with delinquent clients, time
management, stress management and other skills training. These sorts of training could help officers to prepare
themselves to tackle challenges in the workplace.
An issue of formalities was raised for the respondents as a challenge when there is large number of
formalities incorporated on the normal course of operation. Majority of the respondents agreed there are a large
number of formalities and it pose a problem on their task. They suffer a lot because of these formalities, in
general if there is large number of formalities it consumes time and potential.
More over under the first construct management consequences of unethical pressure on the loan
officers and lack of appropriate staff financial incentive scheme was an issue raised under the survey and
respondents agreed that these issues are currently perceived as challenges and affect their performance at work
place. Literature stated that unethical pressure create multiple affect on performance of officials and this
unethical pressure may destroy employee employer relationship and cause high turnover. On the other hand,
financial incentive motivates officials to undertake their task efficiently. But if no financial incentive, officials
may ignore huge workload beyond their normal work.
Under the second construct there were nine items raised for respondents around challenges those may
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raised from client side. The result of the study showed that the respondents are more or less agreed all the issues
raised here are perceived as challenges for their operation. Norms about loan by clients was an issue that
forwarded for the respondents during survey and the exiting norm of the client about the loan is not as such good
as a result to convince the clients to have a positive attitude about the loan needs huge effort and become a
challenged duty for officials. Similarly, there is a skill problem or lack of knowledge of clients that becomes a
challenge for the officials because majority of the rural area clients are illiterate and they didn’t utilize the loan
taken appropriately for the proposed use by the MFIs. Moreover, their income generating activities are not
diversified and exposed to risk of loss. To avoid this limitation the institution tried to give consecutive training
but their distribution are uneven and they are unwilling to take the training. In sum all the above factors lead the
client to have poor management of debt and not to pay their loan on time, as a result large amount of loan
become delinquent and becomes a problem as a whole for the institutions. All the above issues discussed become
challenges for the officials to accomplish their normal task.
Finally the third construct during the survey consisted five items related with issues arise from on the
side of employees. The issues raised were lack of personal relationship/ smooth approach with borrowers, lack of
motivation, level of knowledge, lack of co ordination with different level management and unwilling for working
more than normal functioning office hours. The respondents are not agree with all of the issues and dominantly
they are disagreed strongly with the issue related with unwillingness for working beyond the normal functioning
hours and they worked even week end as a normal working hour to satisfy the demand of the client.
Recommendations
The government and its stake holders / agencies to achieve their poverty alleviation goal they should review the
regulatory frame work of MFIs by comparing with that of other formal financial institutions to give an area to
the MFIs to stay in the system as well to the market. Regarding to officials at different level, because they are the
engine of the operation, the institutions by itself should treat them to encourage in different ways like providing
training and other skill development mechanism, financial incentives, fulfilling the necessary equipments and
infrastructure for the smooth accomplishment of the operation, reducing formalities to save time and resources,
and tried to avoiding unethical acts done by top level managements.
Moreover, the institution exerted its effort on improving the culture and norm of the client about the
loan, give consecutive training related with managing and utilizing of the loan granted for the client and how
they diversify income generating activities to avoid risk and loan default.
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