MicroSave project completion report - FSD Kenya

36 • MICROSAVE PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT
Assessment of impact on pro-poor financial market development
To increase access by poor people to high-quality financial services
Globally:
Market-led savings products reach 3m people by 2007
Market-led credit products reach 400,000 people by 2007
In East and South Africa:
Market-led savings products reach 1.5m people by 2007
Market-led credit products reach 200,000 people by 2007
MicroSave has made an undisputed contribution to pro-poor financial services across the globe. It is not possible to definitively isolate and attribute impact at this level to MicroSave,
particularly on a global basis, in a context of growing competition and technological change in the financial sector. However within East and Southern Africa, MicroSave’s ARP’s are
serving in excess of 2m savers and 250,000 borrowers, figures which are growing rapidly. (Score = 1)
Lessons from project
MicroSave’s experience points to a wider na ncial sector development agenda – moving from organisations to systems.
The centrality of good market understanding to effective intervention.
Build scope for pilot initiatives and flexibility into intervention design.
Interventions need to be guided by a strategy or “pathway” for wider systemic change.
The role of agencies as catalysts to facilitate market system change, not participate in markets directly.
The importance of a rigorous, transparent approach to sustainability from the outset.
Market development requires time, good people and multi-faceted interventions, not necessarily enormous resources.
Key recommendations
As the project is coming to an end, there are no specific recommendations for the project. However FSD Kenya should consider incorporating some form of assessment of MicroSave’s
impact on non-ARP financial service providers into a supply-side survey of the financial sector during the next twelve months. Alternatively or complementarily, FSD Kenya could conduct
a case-based exercise, which tracks a sample of technical service providers trained and certified by MicroSave and assesses the impact of their work on client financial service providers.
Overall project performance score
1 – completed achieved
PCR prepared by Date Reviewed by Date
Rob Hitchins, Springfield Centre 08/02/2008 David Ferrand, Director 21/02/2008
Springfield Centre