Read - Sa-Dhan

Foreword
Foreword
The work of preparing a collective picture of the sector that would analyze and inform stakeholders and
practitioners on performance and progress of CDFIs with adequate details has now enabled us to bring
this report. The ‘Side by Side – A Slice of Microfinance Operations in India 2006’ is fifth in its series since
the work was initiated in the year 2004.
The report is contributed by 129 CDFIs, a quantum leap from 86 CDFIs contributing to the previous report
(Side by Side - 2005). It is encouraging to note that CDFIs are consistently sharing their performance data
with incremental depth. The report is enriched in depth with incremental data from CDFIs now covering
three financial years. It is also encouraging to note that CDFIs that are not members of Sa-Dhan, are
contributing to the report. We thank them all.
Preparation of the report threw new challenges that provided a learning experience for the standards
team on several counts. The data acquisition sheet (DAS) underwent modifications to incorporate
additional data sets and to facilitate reporting easier. The growth in number of contributing CDFIs and
completion of annual statutory audit of larger constituency of CDFIs meant stretched time to obtain data.
Analyzing data from CDFIs and resultant exercise of data validation was an increasingly complex task. The
team undertook field visits to some CDFIs to facilitate the process. Work on web-enabled software was
being undertaken concurrently. This software is being tested and would be available in the next round of
Side by Side work of FY 2007.
The report analyses CDFIs in the aggregate and in the three peer groups of age, outreach and gross loan
portfolio. This time the report has also looked at a core sample of CDFIs that have contributed their data
for three years. The report has looked at top twenty CDFIs in terms of their gross loan portfolio and CDFIs
that have highest growth rate in FY 2006 (compared to FY 2005). Findings of M-Cril and MicroBanking
Bulletin have been incorporated for analyzing results of each of the analytical reports.
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We introduced in the year 2005 a separate individual report to each of the contributing CDFIs that covers
the financial performance of the CDFI in comparison with peer groups of similar CDFIs. This report has
received encouraging feedback.
The responses we received from bankers, development agencies and members on our earlier reports have
been very useful. We believe that this report will provide increased understanding of performance trends
among CDFIs, across size, operating model, age and location.
We acknowledge the comments and suggestions from members including members of the standards
Sub-Group on the draft report.
Congratulations to the Standards team comprising of Mr. R. K. Mukherjee, Mr. Pravin Kumar,
Ms. Reshu Khattar, Ms. Samapika Pati and Ms. Deepa Adhikari in bringing out this report.
The work is made possible by support from The Ford Foundation. We thank The Ford Foundation for their
encouragement and continuing support.
We look forward to hearing from you all on refining the work in days to come!
Mathew Titus
Executive Director
December 27, 2006
Sa-Dhan The Association of Community Development Finance Institutions