FINCA International - How FINCA Programs Grow

How FINCA Programs Grow

A FINCA program begins in the city center, then in a widening ink-blot fashion expands into the peri-urban communities that surround the city, and finally (once the program’s break-even point is reached) expands into rural areas. Normally a new program will establish a single headquarters in the capital city where both administrative and program staff are based.

Then as the program continues to grow it starts to decentralize its operations by creating offices (usually located in the largest market towns) to serve different regions. At the field level each credit officer is expected to grow her own coverage sub-region containing 10-15 village banks. This coverage region should be delimited by a frontier which, from its center, does not exceed one hour’s travel in any direction. Within this coverage area the credit officer organizes village banks along specific “routes”—each route corresponding to a different day of the week—and schedules village bank meeting days and times so she can attend several (2-4) meetings each day on the same route.