Microfinance leaders win prestigious posts

Ganhuyag Hutagt, CEO of XacBank, Mongolia, a commercial bank cofounded by Mercy Corps. Photo: Bob Kellett/Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is pleased to announce that leaders of two of its microfinance institutions have been elected to the seven-member board of the Microfinance Centre for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States: Zhanna Zhakupova, executive director of Asian Credit Fund, Kazakhstan, and Ganhuyag Hutagt, CEO of XacBank, Mongolia.

MFC members elected the two leaders at its annual conference earlier this month. Launched in Warsaw in 1997, the MFC serves as a network of 110 microfinance institutions. Its mission is to contribute to poverty reduction and human potential development by promoting a socially oriented and sustainable microfinance sector that provides adequate financial and non-financial services to a large number of poor families and microentrepreneurs. It provides services to microfinance institutions in the region, such as training and technical assistance, impact assessments, workshops, seminars and exchange visits. It also supports policy and advocacy work to promote microfinance institutions.

We congratulate Zhanna and Gan for their leadership in the field and wish them well in their role as MFC Board members.