Technical assistance to Sofihdes and ACME

This project, funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) aims at providing assistance to two financial institutions in Haiti:

•          the Haitian Financial Society for Economic and Social Developement (Société Financière Haïtienne de Développement Economique et Social – SOFIHDES), a financial institution specialized in loans for MSMEs,
•          the Association for Cooperation with Micro Enterprise (Association pour la Coopération avec le Micro Entreprise – ACME, a microfinance institution.

Two teams of multidisciplinary experts have been dispatched in the two institutions, with the following objective of positioning them as leaders on their respective markets thanks to the modernization of the internal policy, systems and procedures, allowing them to (i) function more efficiently in terms of client prospection, market research, risks management, strategic planning and (ii) broadening their client-base thanks to more innovative and adapted products.

The following components are implemented:

1.             SOFIHDES:

•          Component “Strategic Plan and Governance”: support to the elaboration of a Strategic Plan for the development of SOFIHDES for the period 2013-2016 and support to its implementation (Action plan, monitoring tools etc.)
•          Component “Human Resources management”: Assistance to the modernization of its human resources management policy: elaboration a Human Resources Management Manual, job description, reform of the internal organization etc.
•          Component “Product Development”: assistance to the development of new innovating financial products aimed at a broadened client-base and supported by a thorough market research and i-depth training on client prospection;
•          Component “Operations and MIS”: Modernization of the MIS thanks to the introduction of process mapping tools, risk management functions, operations manuals etc.
•          Component “Recovery and Provisions”: standardization of irregular loan monitoring system, definition of standardized recovery procedures etc.

2.             ACME:

•          Component “Marketing & product development”: introduction of market research and client prospection tools, introduction of data mining methodology, assistance to the conception of a pilot financial product designed for rural areas aimed at supporting the agricultural and agribusiness sector
•          Component “Loan process”: introduction of process mapping tools, elaboration of a new loan manual, evaluation of mobile banking possibilities in order to decrease the transaction costs for the clients.
•          Component “Human Resources”: identification of the needs in terms of HRM and training of the staff of ACME; introduction of new HRM techniques (job description, new remuneration aligned on staff performance, career development plans etc.)
•          Component “Strengthening social and environmental performance”: assistance in implementing a systematic approach in collecting information on the social impact of ACME activities and to increase its social performance via increased transparence on loan conditions, tight control of clients indebtedness, client data protection etc.