Country
Indonesia, Philippines

Local project partner
Cooperation with associations and (micro-) financial institutions in rural areas.
Indonesia with PERBARINDO and BPRs, with the financial supervisory authority, OJK.
Philippines with the associations MASS-SPECC, MMC and RIMANSI.

German project partner
Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg

Donor
BMZ

Duration
01.04.2020 - 31.03.2025

The island states of Indonesia and the Philippines are important players within the Southeast Asia region due to their large populations. Economically, the middle-income countries have developed well in recent years, but at the same time they struggle with great social inequality and poverty. Poverty is particularly pronounced in the remote and rural regions of the island archipelago, but access to financial services is low. In the coming years, the supply of microfinance services will continue to increase. The microfinance market is already characterized by strong growth, and its lack of transparency poses major challenges for government regulators.

In order to meet the future demand for banking personnel in the microfinance sector, especially for the institutionally weaker non-commercial financial institutions, the providers of formal education in the banking sector in Indonesia and the Philippines would have to train significantly more people. This is especially important outside the metropolitan areas of Jakarta and Manila. Currently, and in the future, the projected number of trained professionals in microfinance is far below the demand of financial institutions. The situation is aggravated by the fact that training programs are often not tailored to the needs of the respective institutions.

The project aims to improve access to adequate financial services for micro and small enterprises in selected rural regions in Indonesia and the Philippines, thus contributing to regional economic growth and poverty reduction. The project objective is to strengthen technical skills of people working in the microfinance sector as well as the financial literacy of micro and small enterprises in selected rural regions in both countries.

Project Tasks

The achievement of the project objective is sought through the following five focal points:

1. training for the rural banking sector offered by the regional association PERBARINDO is extended and professionalized according to the needs of its member institutions.
2. the project partners are enabled to impart demand-oriented financial education and commercial knowledge to micro and small entrepreneurs.
3. the preconditions for the inclusion of further project partners and project countries have been created to utilize synergy effects in the medium term and reach a broader target population.
4. In the Philippines, the scope of the practice-oriented dualized training in the microfinance sector "Finance Dualized Education" (FDE) is expanded.
5. Rural population and financial service providers can be motivated by the project to use/offer financial services in a way that they strive for sustainable climate resilience when investing.