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The Citi Foundation Citigroups GrantMaking Arm Pledges USD 100000 to PlanetFinances Microfinance Training Programme in Middle East and North Africa

Written by: David Satterthwaite

Article Overview: The Citi Foundation, the grant-making foundation of international financial services firm Citigroup, has pledged a USD 100,000 grant to PlaNet Finance, the French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), towards the development of a microfinance training curriculum in Arabic. This will be aimed at MFIs in seven Arab countries and delivered through 50 course modules designed to provide them with skills in human resources, planning and strategy, products, accounting, supervision and finance. There will be five-day training sessions in Casablanca, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Ramallah, Damascus and Sana’a over the next three years.

The Citi Foundation Citigroups GrantMaking Arm Pledges USD 100000 to PlanetFinances Microfinance Training Programme in Middle East and North Africa

The Citi Foundation, the grant-making foundation of international financial services firm Citigroup, has pledged a USD 100,000 grant to PlaNet Finance, the French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), towards the development of a microfinance training curriculum in Arabic. This will be aimed at MFIs in seven Arab countries and delivered through 50 course modules designed to provide them with skills in human resources, planning and strategy, products, accounting, supervision and finance. There will be five-day training sessions in Casablanca, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Ramallah, Damascus and Sana’a over the next three years.

PlanetFinance, which provides technical assistance, rating assessments and financing to MFIs, claims that the number of microfinance active clients in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has increased more than tenfold since 1999, from 129,000 to approximately 1.5 million, but that another 4.5 million are still lacking access to financial services. Compared to other parts of the world such as Latin America and South Asia, the microfinance sector in the MENA region is still underdeveloped both in terms of beneficiaries as well as MFIs. So far the majority of the MFIs in the region are non-profit, non-government organisations (NGOs) with very few commercial banks active in the sector.

The Citi Foundation supports programs in the areas of youth education, financial education, and supporting communities and entrepreneurs. It donated USD 92 million in grants in 2006.

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Article Tags: amman, arab countries, beirut, beneficiaries, casablanca, citigroup, commercial banks, course modules, damascus, financial education, government organisations, latin america, mena region, microfinance institutions, microfinance sector, north africa region, profit company, ramallah, south asia, youth education



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