Product Development for Microfinance
The ‘Product Development for Microfinance’ course is one of the four courses in the Operational Management Curriculum, along with ‘Business Planning with Microfin’, Information Systems’ and ‘Operational Risk Management’. The need to develop increasingly flexible and responsive financial products constitutes perhaps the most compelling challenge facing the microfinance industry today. In response to this growing need, a number of donors, practitioner networks, and projects are in the process of developing operational tools that practitioners can use to design demand-responsive microfinance products. This four to six day course covers both the process of developing a new product (market definition, market research, product proto-type, costing and pricing, pilot testing, roll-out, marketing, lifecycle management, etc.) as well as the impact of introducing new products on the MFI (human resources, corporate culture, operations and systems, financial results, operating results, etc.).
DISCLAIMER
CGAP is pleased to make the course materials from the CGAP Skills for Microfinance Managers course series publicly available. Although the course materials have been well tested and revised CGAP cannot ensure that the materials and all calculations are fully accurate. The microfinance industry continues to evolve and new standards continue to emerge. As a result, the course materials may not reflect the latest practices in the microfinance industry.
Although CGAP has made every attempt to produce high-quality course materials, ultimately it is the technical skills, training experience and preparation of the trainers that guarantee the quality of the course itself and the successful transfer of skills and knowledge to course participants.
Please note that CGAP recognizes only those partners and trainers that went through its certification process as CGAP training partners from 1997 to 2008. Others who offer a course using materials from one of the CGAP Skills for Microfinance Managers courses should not refer to themselves as CGAP trainers or CGAP-certified.
CGAP also requests that all those who offer the ‘Product Development for Microfinance’ course use the following text in their marketing materials and course descriptions: “The ‘Product Development for Microfinance’ course is based on the materials developed by CGAP that are publicly available on www.cgap.org. CGAP is a leading independent resource for objective information, expert opinion, and innovative solutions for microfinance. CGAP works with the financial industry, governments and investors to expand access to financial services for poor people around the world.”
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