Study of Microfinance Sector Capacity Building in Sierra Leone

7.3. Strategic Gaps in the sector
From all the above weaknesses and threats, the consultants extracted/
identified the strategic gaps that are to be addressed in the five year
capacity building strategy. For this purpose, a gap is considered to be of
a strategic nature if;
(i)
(ii)
Non-attendance to it would impair or check progress/ effects of
the industry’s capacity building in a material way and,
Addressing it would result into a solution to several key
weaknesses and threats identified in section 7.2 above.
The following are the key gaps identified by the consultants and agreed
to by the stakeholders in the regional workshop:
Absence of an institutionalised capacity building
framework
Inadequate knowledge and skills at all levels
Limited rural/ geographical outreach
Limited diversity of products and delivery methods
Low business and financial services awareness among
the population
Weak MFIs and their national network support
organizations
Fundamental stakeholder differences on issues
Lack of adequate funding for capacity building and loan
portfolios
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