Solidarity Bankers is a skills volunteering program launched by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA in 2018 with a dual objective: on the one hand, to support microfinance institutions and social impact businesses financed by the Foundation with technical assistance, and on the other hand, to promote the skills of Group employees who wish to get involved in projects with a strong social impact.

OXUS Kyrgyzstan is a microcredit institution that provides financial services to the working poor and underbanked in Kyrgyzstan. Andreas Brunner, Internal Audit Supervisor at Crédit Agricole Assurances, assisted the institution in developing an annual marketing plan.

A look back at the program with an interview with Denis Khomyakov, CEO of OXUS Kyrgyzstan.

• Presentation: Can you present your microfinance institution? (Key figures, mission, approach, clients, structure, etc.)

The company was established in 2006 by the OXUS Group and the NGO ACTED (major shareholder). Our institution's mission is to be a transparent and accountable company committed to providing financial services to the working poor and underbanked in Kyrgyzstan. The company is located in 5 of Kyrgyzstan's 7 regions, has 15 branches, and 135 employees. We currently have approximately 9,500 clients, with an outstanding loan portfolio of 800 million KGS (9.4 million USD). 50% of OXUS' clients are women, and 63% come from rural areas.

• You benefited from the Solidarity Bankers program in 2021 to develop a marketing plan and create a customer loyalty program. Why was this important for your institution?

A well-designed and functional loyalty program will increase customer retention rates while attracting new customers. The marketing plan should enable the company to more efficiently structure the resources allocated to marketing activities. These two deliverables from the Solidarity Bankers mission will allow us to better promote OXUS Kyrgyzstan's offering.

• How did you prepare for the mission before the arrival of the Solidarity Banker?

We spent a lot of time prioritizing the points we wanted to address with the Solidarity Banker. We prepared extensive documentation on the company, its clients, its activities, its current operations, and a list of people involved in future projects. We also had a lot of discussions with Andreas to define what we wanted to do in terms of marketing. The preparation phase was crucial to the success of the mission..

• What did you expect from the Solidarity Banker? Did the results meet your expectations?

I expected a consulting mission with certain documents as deliverables. What we received: detailed training from a marketing specialist! Andreas, the Solidarity Banker, conducted interviews and trained everyone involved in the marketing process (from loan officers and branch managers to the CFO and COO)! The result is fantastic, and we are now using the documents created with Andreas. These documents are completely tailored to our reality. The mission was excellent and exceeded our expectations.

• What were the priorities defined following the recommendations made?

The priority is to refine and implement the 2022 marketing plan. Work on the loyalty program is also underway, but this presupposes the implementation of the 2022 marketing plan. We look forward to implementing both projects.