AMISS has developed 3 concept papers aimed at financing the needs of the members, AMISS herself and the customers.
The first concept paper is designed to address the institutional capacity building of the AMISS Members and AMISS itself. Microfinance in still nascent in South Sudan having conventionally started operations in 2003 before the market disruptions of 2016/17 forced most of the MFIs to close. A few of the previous MFIs are still in operation but others have come on board. There is therefore a need to build the capacity of these members to effectively deliver microfinance services based on globally accepted best practices and principles.
The second concept paper aims at seeking for financial resources to specially intervene in jobs creation for women and youth especially at the MSME level. The idea is to build the capacity of the women and youth through business and financial literacy trainings after which they are offered seed capital to start a business or working capital to grow an existing but undercapitalized business. The main target is though whose who are engaged in the agriculture sector and food enterprises in all the States of South Sudan. This will not only create jobs, but improve on food supply, peace and stability.
The third concept paper is seeking for Lending Capital, in whatever form, for the MFIs to access the relevant funds for on-lend to the general public. This has been brought to the fore since virtually no commercial bank is offering access to financial services, especially loans at the micro level and none even reaches the rural settings. MFIs on the other hand have the experience and appetite to engage with the rural communities but lack sufficient capital to provide such services. This has been worsened by the fact international lenders, including home-based commercial banks are not willing to lend to microfinance institutions given the volatility of the South Sudanese Pounds.
The government, international partners and other entities are therefore being approached by AMISS to present the case of financing any or all of these concept papers within the 2024 financial service and beyond.