Microfinance Banking Operations and Loan Portfolio Training Course

Course overview

Microfinance institutions must grow outreach while controlling delinquency, fraud, liquidity pressure and operating cost. Branch teams and portfolio managers need more than credit-policy knowledge: they must translate client cash flows into repayment capacity, maintain accurate loan records, identify early-warning signals, manage collections consistently and report portfolio quality in terms that senior management, funders and regulators can rely on. Weaknesses in any of these controls can turn rapid portfolio growth into rising PAR, loan-loss provisions and reputational damage.

This course develops the operational and analytical capability required to manage an individual, group and microenterprise lending portfolio. Participants work through end-to-end loan processing, from client onboarding and KYC checks to appraisal, approval, disbursement, repayment posting, delinquency follow-up, restructuring, write-off and recovery. They calculate and interpret PAR, arrears ageing, collection efficiency, loan-loss reserve requirements, yield, operating expense ratio and borrower concentration. The programme also addresses credit governance, fraud controls, client protection, IFRS 9 impairment concepts and practical use of a core microfinance information system.

Instruction combines focused faculty sessions with portfolio-data analysis, lending-file reviews, collection simulations and operational case work. Participants use Excel-based templates and Mifos X workflow examples to diagnose a deteriorating branch portfolio and prioritise corrective actions. Each participant leaves with a completed Loan Portfolio Improvement Plan containing a dashboard, delinquency segmentation, collection actions, control enhancements and 90-day implementation priorities that can be adapted to their institution.

The course is designed for experienced microfinance practitioners and managers responsible for lending operations, portfolio quality, branch performance, risk oversight or finance reporting. It is equally valuable for banks expanding into microfinance and for regulated MFIs seeking stronger, repeatable operating discipline.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Calculate PAR, arrears ageing, collection efficiency, yield and operating expense ratios from a microfinance portfolio dataset
• Apply cash-flow-based credit appraisal to assess repayment capacity for individual microenterprise borrowers
• Design a loan processing workflow with documented KYC, approval, disbursement and maker-checker controls
• Segment delinquent accounts using days-past-due, exposure, borrower behaviour and recoverability criteria
• Prepare a collections action plan with call schedules, field visits, promises-to-pay and escalation thresholds
• Evaluate loan restructuring, rescheduling, write-off and recovery decisions against portfolio-quality and client-protection criteria
• Build an Excel portfolio dashboard with PAR, ageing, concentration, provisioning and branch-level exception indicators
• Produce a 90-day Loan Portfolio Improvement Plan for a branch or microfinance lending unit

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Microfinance Operations Managers — who need consistent loan-processing controls and branch operating discipline
• Credit Managers and Credit Officers — who assess borrower repayment capacity and approve or monitor loans
• Branch Managers — who are accountable for portfolio quality, staff productivity and collections performance
• Portfolio Risk Managers — who monitor PAR trends, concentrations, provisions and early-warning indicators
• Collections and Recovery Managers — who need structured delinquency segmentation and recovery strategies
• Finance Managers in MFIs or microfinance banks — who translate portfolio performance into provisioning, yield and management reporting

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in microfinance lending, branch operations, credit administration, collections, portfolio reporting or financial control. They should already understand basic loan terms such as principal, interest, instalment, collateral, arrears and days past due, and be comfortable working with spreadsheets, including sorting, filtering and simple formulas in Microsoft Excel. Familiarity with a core banking or microfinance system is useful but not essential; Mifos X is demonstrated in class. No programming, statistical modelling or prior IFRS 9 implementation experience is required. Participants without direct lending exposure should first complete foundational microfinance credit training.

Training methodology

The programme uses instructor-led briefings to establish microfinance operating standards, followed by practical work on loan files, borrower cash flows and anonymised branch portfolio data. Participants calculate indicators in Excel, review workflow and audit-trail examples in Mifos X, and work in groups on delinquency, restructuring and fraud-control cases. Collection conversations and approval-committee decisions are practised through structured simulations. On the final day, each participant converts findings from the case portfolio into a 90-day improvement plan for application in their own branch, MFI or microfinance bank.

Course outline

Day 1: Microfinance operating model and loan lifecycle controls

• Microfinance product structures for individual, group and microenterprise lending
• End-to-end loan lifecycle from prospecting to closure
• Client onboarding, KYC and beneficial-owner verification requirements
• Credit policy, delegated authority and approval committee design
• Maker-checker controls and segregation of duties in branch operations
• Loan documentation, collateral records and audit-trail standards
• Client protection principles and responsible lending conduct

Workshop: Participants map their current loan lifecycle against a control checklist and produce a gap log covering ownership, evidence and control weaknesses.

Day 2: Credit appraisal and disciplined loan decisions

• Household and microenterprise cash-flow analysis
• Repayment-capacity testing using seasonal income and expenditure patterns
• Character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions in microfinance appraisal
• Loan sizing, tenor and instalment design for irregular cash flows
• Debt-service and multiple-borrowing assessment
• Credit bureau checks and alternative data verification
• Exception approvals, covenants and post-disbursement monitoring triggers

Workshop: Participants appraise a microenterprise loan case, build a cash-flow projection and write an approval recommendation with conditions and monitoring triggers.

Day 3: Portfolio quality measurement and early-warning analysis

• Portfolio at Risk calculation by PAR 1, PAR 30 and PAR 90
• Arrears ageing schedules and vintage analysis
• Collection efficiency, repayment rate and loan officer productivity measures
• Portfolio yield, operating expense ratio and cost-per-borrower analysis
• Borrower, sector, geography and product concentration analysis
• Early-warning indicators for branch-level portfolio deterioration
• Excel dashboard design using pivots, filters and exception flags

Workshop: Using a branch loan dataset, participants build a portfolio dashboard and produce a management commentary identifying the three highest-priority risks.

Day 4: Delinquency management, recovery and provisioning

• Delinquency segmentation by days past due, exposure and recoverability
• Collections workflow from reminder to field visit and legal escalation
• Promises-to-pay, collection notes and contact-strategy documentation
• Rescheduling, restructuring and refinancing decision rules
• Write-off governance and post-write-off recovery tracking
• IFRS 9 staging concepts and expected credit loss inputs for microfinance loans
• Fraud red flags in disbursement, repayment posting and loan restructuring

Workshop: Participants run a collections prioritisation workshop for an overdue portfolio and produce an account-level action schedule with escalation decisions.

Day 5: Systems, governance and portfolio improvement planning

• Mifos X loan workflow, repayment posting and delinquency-status fields
• Data-quality controls for client, loan, repayment and arrears records
• Management information packs for branch, executive and board review
• Portfolio review meeting cadence and accountability routines
• Internal audit testing of lending and collections controls
• Corrective-action design for rising PAR and declining collection efficiency
• Ninety-day portfolio improvement plan structure and success measures

Workshop: Participants complete and present a 90-day Loan Portfolio Improvement Plan containing dashboard targets, control actions, owners, deadlines and review measures.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Mifos X, IFRS 9, CGAP Client Protection Standards

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions