All
the same, she never stopped following up on the progress of the financial
programs taking place in the Ugandan community. When the MFI Hofokam was established through a merger of three
village banking programs in 2003 and costs were still exceeding income in
2005, she decided to work on-site at the institution during her vacation.
At that time she managed to develop a performance model for Hofokam that helped to bring the organization to that
crucial break-even mark.
During
the following visits, when working together with the local people be it at
the grass root or at management level, Birgit felt that she could
contribute so much more through the development of further ideas and
applications which would make a difference for the Microfinance
Institutions and their clients. In order to be able committing her energy
full time to this international finance development work, she therefore
decided in 2007 to leave her position at Deutsche Bank.
Soon after starting her work as an independent consultant for the microfinance industry she assessed for GTZ the operational efficiency, outreach and loan pricing of the People’s Credit Banks in Indonesia (BPR). Based on this research she developed a quantitative management tool for the BPR-Industry which was well received by the BPRs and Bank Indonesia’s Directorate of Credit for BPR and MSME. The tool’s concepts and applications are being taught by local trainers across Indonesia. (An article in the magazine MediaBPR Sep-Oct09 tells more about this
topic.)
|