The populations of the hilly and mountainous regions of Nepal still remain under-served in terms of access of micro finance. Since these areas are considered risky and expensive to serve, most of the financial institutions are hesitant to operate in these areas.  Nevertheless, Mercy Corps have enabled the related MFIs expand into these areas with innovative product and qualitative service for these needy poor households through the DFID funded Sustainable Access to Finance and Livelihoods in Nepal (SAFAL Nepal)” program. To supplement SAFAL, Financial Literacy Training (FLT) are being carried out in Rukum, Banke, Kalikot and Jumla by Mecry Corps and Nirdhan in order to increase the loan repayment capacities of these rural poor households so that they can better utilize the loans they take out from the MFIs. With the help of financial literacy trainings, the target groups are able to make informed decisions about savings, money and risk management and practice sound financial behavior. The target clients are also able to participate more confidently in micro-enterprise creation and increased productivity.

The overall goal of the project is to improve the overall livelihood status of the poor rural MFI clients by providing them with helpful financial management knowledge:

• Carry out FLT for the MFI groups according to the curriculum developed by Mercy Corps; Each group will receive 26 sessions of training
• Each group of MFI will have 20-25 participants
• By the end of the project period, the following number of 204 MFI groups will have been trained: Banke (Fattepur) – 28, Kalikot – 28, Jumla – 28, Rukum (Chaurjahari) – 24
• To train additional facilitators to deliver the training if needed according to the ToT provided by Mercy Corps
• Monitoring and supervision of the FLT by Mercy Corps and Nirdhan
• Periodic evaluation of the FLT