National Policy Conference: January 2005

The report documents the qualitative deliberations held at the National Policy Conference in 2005. The aim of the conference was to identify the key impediments in the area of providing microfinance services to the poor. It also focused on discussions about the necessity of a legal and regulatory framework for the MFI sector, which will facilitate the scaling up of services provided by various organizations to the poor and the unorganized sector.The speakers at the conference attempted to address some of the inherent issues of the MFI sector. Suggestions from various speakers included:

• Rated-MFIs should be allowed to take in deposits;
• MFIs should be ready to shoulder the responsibility of creating self-help groups as well as undertake the responsibility of credit-rating them;
• Core features of an appropriate legal and regulatory framework to facilitate sectoral growth should be identified;
• Collaborations and partnerships could be developed between formal financial institutions and the MFI institutions in the changing environment;
• Resource challenges to the scaling up and outreach in the microfinance sector should be identified.