The Zimbabwe Association of Microfinance Institutions (ZAMFI) today used the occasion of their 3rd Annual Microfinance Sector Winter School in Kariba, to launch a regulatory review of their sector. The Winter School is taking place from 18 and 20 May under the theme “Tranversing the Microfinance Landscape”.

Microfinance outreach for the quarter ending March 2018 was $115.6 million forcredit only MFIs that are members to ZAMFI, an increase by 17.1% from the outreach figures reported in December 2017 of $98.7 million. Inspite of the increase, the number of active borrowers has decreased from 173 348 clients to 165 450, an indication that MFIs have increased their average loan per person.

ZAMFI notes that the first half of the year has been a difficult period for the microfinance sector on account of many challenges bedeviling the sector which could potentially spillover into the second half. The top five challenges of great concern to the sector included high cost of funding, shortage of cash & foreign currency, a general rise in cost of operations, limited product development and the perceived high country risk.

The total assets for the microfinance credit only sector amounted to $206.3 million as at 30 September 2018. These sector’s total assets were dominated by loans which constituted 87.0% of the total sector assets while fixed assets which represented non-interest earning assets amounted to 4% of the total sector assets.