Kinshasa, June 9th, 2022 (CPA).- The Inclusive Finance Promotion (ProFI) project has trained nearly 615,466 people, including 166,175 representing women in financial education, 4 companies, 11 mining cooperatives and 10 micro-finance institutions since its creation in 2019, said Thursday, the main technical adviser, Sylva Sergiou, during the closing ceremony of the said project. She said that throughout the period of implementation of ProFI, several other actions were carried out in several sectors and especially in mining areas and for the benefit of low-income households in 5 provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, namely, the North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Katanga, Lualaba and Haut-Uélé. Apart from this training, this project has also invested in the development of financial products and services adapted to digital distribution channels and to action research and studies carried out in the mining areas of the provinces mentioned above. For his part, the Resident Country Director of GIZ, Andréas Kalk, called on the participants in this ceremony to perpetuate the achievements of this project, with a view to boosting the economic sector and especially microfinance in view of the importance of this project. He said that this project has helped a little more than one Congolese to know how to save and know how to manage their finances without constraints in order to avoid any unnecessary expenses. Mr. Willy Mudiayi, Director in charge of DSIF at the Central Bank of Congo (BCC), on behalf of the Governor of this institution, thanked GIZ through ProFI, before promising that they will have to do everything possible to deserve more the confidence of donors. He noted the importance and leading role played by GIZ through ProFI, that of contributing to the promotion of financial education by providing consumers with the necessary financial services and knowledge and insurance, support for financial service providers, with a view to better adapting their products and services as well as their distribution channels, improving information relating to the use and supply of financial services to enable providers to have reliable information. He recalled that it is within the framework of the Maya report that the BCC has set up a partnership with the GIZ. In this context, ProFI has taken the decision since May 2012 to improve financial inclusion through the conduct of two issues on the protection of consumers of financial services as well as on financial education in order to contribute effectively to the development of the national financial inclusion strategy. A symbolic handover ceremony of the working tools of the National Financial Education Program (PNEF) to the BCC and several testimonials punctuated this activity.
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