President Kibaki of Kenya to Open Microcredit Summit in Nairobi

Microfinance Focus, March 15, 2010: Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki will open the Africa-Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit to be held April 7-10, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. President Kibaki will be joined at the Summit by HM Queen Sofia of Spain, HRH Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, BRAC Chair Sir Fazle Abed, Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, and Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta.

The workshop titled: “What Is Needed to have Wholesale/Autonomous Microfinance Funds Work in Africa and the Middle East” will be chaired by former World Bank Vice President Praful Patel and will include Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed who is Managing Director of PKSF in Bangladesh, Mr. Eric Ekué who is former Secretary-General of the Banking Supervision Commission (BCEAO), Senegal, Marylou Uy who is Director of the Financial Sector Operations and Policy Department at the World Bank, and David Ferrand who is Director of Financial Services Deepening at DFID in Kenya.

Another workshop titled “Innovations in Information Technology that Work for the Clients and for MFIs” will be chaired by Kamal Budhabhatti who is CEO of Craft Silicon and will include George Conard who is Executive Director of Technology for Microfinance at the Grameen Foundation, Eamon Scullin who is CEO of Fern Software, Murray Gardiner who is Microfinance and Community Banking Strategy Manager at TEMENOS, and Rashid Kola who is a consultant with IBM in South Africa.

The Summit is being co-organized by the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Kenya (AMFI) and the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a project of RESULTS Educational Fund.

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