Design and Conduct a Customized Direct Lending, Monitoring and Collection Training Program

Under the MFMR project, and to fulfil the objective of the project, Al Jidara designed a customized training program based on an assessment of the institution and its branches. As part of the initial organizational assessment, Al Jidara was commissioned to first review a report prepared by a consultant contracted by GIZ that provided a gap analysis of the DEF’s existing lending, monitoring and collection offerings/status quo, and its future required direction, which served as the basis in guiding the development of Al Jidara’s assessment approach and methodology.

Based on key findings and recommendations, Al Jidara designed a customized series of training courses to build the capacity of the DEF and trained it staff from the selected branches of the DEF on Development Financing Best Practices, including credit management, credit analysis and monitoring, the roles of a credit office, risk management, financial analysis and tools, and management of arrears and their impact on the fund. As a result, a training program “Development of Collection Skills” was designed which covered topics around credit, customer service, management of bad debt, negotiation and communication skills, among others. To complement these trainings and to ensure sustainability and ongoing capacity development in the DEF, Al Jidara offered a training of trainers (ToT) program and trained selected group of loan officers and branch managers to build their capacity in delivering trainings and to enable them to transfer their knowledge and experience to current and future staff members. Al Jidara also conducted two training programs for a select group of the CBJ staff, an advanced excel training and a Project Management Professional (PMP) training.

The capacity building activities implemented by Al Jidara helped to enhance and strengthen the capacity of the DEF in carrying out its role as a key player in the reform of the Jordanian micro-finance sector, and to strengthen its performance as a lender to low-income populations in targeted areas.