MICRA Indonesia (Microfinance Innovation Center for Resources and Alternatives) held an inaugural training to strengthen cooperatives in collaboration with the Center for Sharia Cooperatives in Padang, West Sumatra (Puskopsyah). The one-day event held last October 29th, 2022 at the Integrated Business Service Center Building (PLUT) of the West Sumatra Cooperative Service. Attended by the representatives of 7 Sharia Cooperatives in the city of Padang, they are committed to participate in the Indonesian Economic Resilience (ER) Program of MICRA. The 5-Year Sustainability Training Activity for Microfinance Institution Resources in West Sumatra was also attended by Officer from Cooperatives and MSMEs of West Sumatra Province, and Vice Chancellor II of Nahdlatul Ulama University (UNU) West Sumatra.
Regional Manager Region I Muhammad Hanafi said, “The uniqueness of this program is the existence of a risk management program for cooperative members supported by Asia Affinity Holding Limited a reinsurance company based in Hong Kong and has a business network in Asia. Asia Affinity is moved to cooperate with MICRA Indonesia after seeing the direct impact of several natural disasters in Indonesia after the tsunami at Aceh and the earthquake at Palu in 2018.”
The ER Indonesia program was launched as an effort to build awareness for business actors in the micro-economy sector, that Indonesia, including West Sumatra, is an area that is vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. This sustainability training is carried out every month for 5 years with a hybrid learning system (offline & online) and in the future classes will be developed for conventional cooperatives with the support of the West Sumatra provincial government. It is hoped that the ER Indonesia Program can reach all educational institutions and microfinance institutions in West Sumatra.
This activity began with opening remarks by Mr. Zulkifli Azis as the Chair of the Puskopsyah in the city of Padang, West Sumatra. Then continued with the presentation of the training material delivered by Mr. Asep Sudrajat as Loan & Investment Manager of MICRA Indonesia as well as Sharia Cooperative Facilitator. The training materials that lasted for 1 day included "Introduction to Training & Learning Contracts", "Introduction to Islamic Economics", "Principles of Sharia Cooperative Contracts and Products", and "How to Implement Sharia Contracts".
The implementation of the inaugural training for strengthening cooperatives in collaboration with Puskopsyah in Padang, West Sumatra received very high enthusiasm from the participants. Participants and facilitators interact actively, both in the question and answer session and discussion of the problems experienced by participants while carrying out their work. The event then ended with a prayer reading led by Mr. Asep Sudrajat.
MICRA Indonesia is a partner of Asia Affinity Holding Limited for the implementation of the Economic Resilience (ER) Indonesia program. The ER Indonesia program is a sustainable disaster mitigation initiative program aiming at increase the economic resilience from every institution involved. For more information about ER Indonesia program click here or email us at info@micra-indo.org.
Writer: Muhammad Hanafi, Rafiuddin Palinrungi
Editor: Andi Cintana Nurmilad
Photo by: Febrianto Irwan