The member institutions were not short of training. They were short of training that applied to what was actually in their credit files. Previous programmes had delivered theory, and staff had returned to the same lending decisions they were making before.
I led a programme across 22 microfinance institutions and SACCOs. Every session used the institution's own loan files, its own arrears list and its own board minutes. Officers assessed real applications, and the gaps in their own practice became the curriculum.
Twenty two institutions left with staff trained in loan appraisal, risk, compliance and digital finance, and with a method they could keep applying after the programme closed.
None of it was clever. It was sequenced, written down, and reported on monthly.
Assessed each institution's own credit files and arrears lists before writing any training.
Built the curriculum out of the gaps that assessment found, not out of a syllabus.
Trained officers in loan appraisal, risk, compliance and digital finance, using live applications.
Left each institution a method its own staff could keep applying after the programme closed.
Training changes behaviour when it costs the officer something to keep doing what they did before, and the only way to do that is to work with their own files.
The scorecard takes fifteen minutes and tells you where the gap sits before you spend anything.