The 10th Biennial conference took place from Wednesday November 28 to Saturday December 1, 2018 in Mekelle, Ethiopia. Over 160 people from the inclusive finance arena; specifically, executive directors and board representatives of MFIs, MSE and SME promotion agencies, Banks, local as well as foreign universities, international organizations, entrepreneurship promotion organizations, technology companies, consultancy companies, financial cooperative experts and development partners from across the country and the continent attended the four-day event.
The Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (AEMFI) strongly believes in engaging all stakeholders of the inclusive finance agenda, to create a platform for dialogue to keep up with best practices and creating new ideas into the promotion of inclusive finance. AEMFI is one of the strong sustainable microfinance networks in the world. The association has been active in sharing its experiences to many networks and practitioners from various countries. It has been providing value adding capacity building support to MFIs, including financial cooperatives. On top of serving as the voice of the industry, it has been very active in implementing evidence-based advocacy and publishing the performance of MFIs on regular basis. The association has been directly involved in implementing government and donor support programs such as HABP, RUFIP, MSE development strategy etc. Currently, the association as part of its capacity building efforts is in the process of implementing shared core banking software for medium and small MFIs in Ethiopia. In this regards, the selection of software vendor is in progress and it is at verge of finalization. Furthermore, the association through its training and research institute (EIFTRI) with the support from Enterprise partners has launched a certification program in partnership with the Frankfurt school of management for certification of Micro finance Technical service providers to solve the problem of skilled professional trainers in the industry.
