Saul Chin’anga's opening remarks at microfinance excellence awards
GOOD evening to you all.
I heartily welcome you all to the Zamfi annual microfinance excellence awards ceremony.
This is an occasion of joy for all of us as we have come together for celebrating this auspicious day.
This goes without saying that the award ceremony is amongst Zamfi`s most treasured occasion, as it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the preceding year, address the whole sector and share the achievements, success, and plans of our institution for the days to come.
Year 2023 was a mixed bag, with both positive and negative factors coming into play within the economic environment, most particularly within the microfinance sector.
These include the introduction of gold backed up digital tokens, the foreign exchange auction allotments, the financial inclusion strategies(NFIS1&2) and the credit and collateral registry instruments which should work towards building a more sustainable sector.
Given this backdrop, I would like to congratulate delegates here present and all the players in the microfinance sector of Zimbabwe for remaining focused towards financial inclusion at a time such as this.
Indeed, our respective contributions towards financial inclusion not only create a sustainable microfinance sector in Zimbabwe but also is key in uplifting the socioeconomic living standards of fellow Zimbabweans especially those that are otherwise marginalised.
To this end, I am confident of our proactive contribution as the microfinance sector of this country towards the national Vision 2030.
The Zamfi board and management is proud to announce that, today, we are gathered here to celebrate some of our colleagues who in the course of this year, have excelled in a number of categories despite the hurdles we all faced.
Amongst us, we have winners and runner ups in the following categories:
• Most Profitable and Financially Stable MFI
• Most Youth Friendly MFI.
• Most Resilient MFI.
• Most Women Friendly MFI.
• Most Digitalized MFI.
• Most Productive loans.
• Most Agriculture focused MFI
• Most Rural Outreach MFI
• Fastest Outreach Growing MFI
• Best Journalist in Microfinance
This is worth celebrating and emulating.
I am hoping that this event will not only allow us to network and share notes but will also encourage each one of us to remain focused towards creating a sustainable microfinance sector in Zimbabwe.
On behalf of the Zamfi board and management, I would like to thank:
• All our sponsors
• Zimbabwe Microfinance Fund for co –hosting this event
• Ministry of Finance
• Microfinance practitioners
• RBZ
• Our service providers
• Development partners
• My fellow board members as well as
• The auditors and judges for the processes leading to this event
We owe the success of this event to you all.
Thank you/Siyabonga/Tatenda.