Unitus, Bill

Bangalore, Oct 26 (UNI) Unitus Inc, an organisation providing innovative solutions to global poverty, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have joined hands to study and improve efficiency in the micro-finance industry.

The results of the research would be shared across the industry to help micro-finance institutions (MFIs) operate more effectively and provide lower cost services to their clients.

Unitus had hired four experienced financial analysts to find ways to improve operational and financial efficiency among MFIs in India, Latin America and around the world, according to a release here today.

The analysts, over the next three years, would identify efficiency-enhancing measures such as reducing operating costs associated with MFIs, increasing employee productivity and creating systems to optimise treasury management which would further lower the cost of capital for MFIs and interest rates for micro-entrepreneurs.

Unitus President and Chief Executive Officer Geoff Davis said ''improving efficiency in the micro-finance industry is essential to its long-term success. For an MFI, improved efficiency translates into better use of resources, faster growth and significantly more of their micro-entrepreneur clients having access to life-changing financial services at lower cost.'' Gates Foundation Global Development Program President Sylvia Mathews said ''it is our hope that increasing efficiency in the micro-finance industry would result in greater access to these services for the poor and thereby help improve their lives.'' UNI MSP GD GM1835