The fifth National Microfinance Members Conference is scheduled to be held in Kathmandu on Sunday and Monday (Chait 20 and 21) to discuss the achievements, problems and challenges of the microfinance program and decide on future strategies.

The conference, which is being organized under the initiative of major organizations operating microfinance programs in Nepal and coordinated by the Self-Reliance Development Center, will be attended by more than 500 participants, the organizers informed at a press conference on Thursday.

The two-day conference will feature group discussions, interactions and experience exchange on various dimensions of microfinance. Under which, discussions will be held on topics such as 'Experience and progress of microfinance members', 'Current status, challenges and opportunities of microfinance' and others.

Nepal is the only country in the world to hold a members conference, out of 177 countries operating microfinance programs, said Shankarman Shrestha, Chairman of the Self-Reliance Development Center, at the press conference. ‘There is a practice of holding world conferences, regional and national conferences with the participation of microfinance policy makers and regulators,’ he said, ‘Nepal is the only country that holds conferences with the participation of members.’ He said that members are an integral part of microfinance and the conferences are being held with them at the center.

The Self-Reliance Development Center has been organizing microfinance member conferences every two years since 2073 BS. Microfinance financial institutions have been playing a role in economic and social areas such as poverty alleviation, economic and social development of women and the underprivileged, literacy growth, and sustainable development.

Shrestha said that there are successful examples such as microfinance making women confined to the kitchen self-employed, increasing female literacy, motivating children to send them to school, and youth returning from abroad becoming self-employed by taking loans from microfinance. However, after the government converted microfinance institutions into a company model and made them ‘D’ category financial institutions, there was a competition to earn profits and share dividends, and for this, more loans were given than necessary, which increased the distortion.

Stating that unhealthy competition was a problem, he claimed that the microfinance program should be improved and made member-oriented, and this would turn the rural economy of Nepal around.

Currently, microfinance financial institutions and cooperative organizations that do microfinance business are providing microfinance services in all 77 districts of Nepal. In addition to financial services, microfinance institutions are doing various things for the economic and social development of ‘Credit Plus’ members. Similarly, under the ‘Three Zeros’ concept, they are working by forming youth clubs with the goal of zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions.

According to the data of Nepal Rastra Bank, as of Asoj 2082, 52 microfinance financial institutions have affiliated 6.283 million general public with microfinance programs through 5,000 branches across the country. Of these, 95 percent are women.