Hugh Fraser

Hugh Fraser is a financial sector consultant and trainer especially relating to microfinance and financial inclusion. He spent 20 years in East Africa specifically in Kenya and Tanzania long-term but undertook work in the other East African countries as well as in several other Southern African countries.

A university graduate and a professionally qualified banker with a postgraduate Diploma in Education and Training, he has a combined total of over 25 years in banking, microfinance and financial inclusion. He has undertaken several consultancy assignments for, among others, the EU, UNDP, DFID, SIDA, USAID, DANIDA, SIDA, AfDB and The Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Hugh is an experienced project manager and managed two UNDP-funded MSME finance projects in Kenya and Tanzania as well the EU’s PROINVEST programme covering East Africa and Indian Ocean Countries. He has interacted and is comfortable working with all levels of financial sector personnel and experts as well as with grassroots communities.

He is an accredited Trainer of CGAP’s African Microfinance Capacity Building Programme, AFCAP and has also sat on a number of MSED/Microfinance-related Boards and Committees.

For 11 years up to September 2009, Hugh was Director of Business Advisory Services at Ernst & Young Tanzania and the MSME finance leader for Ernst & Young Africa firms covering 14 countries.

He pioneered and led the annual preparation, as an Ernst & Young publication, of a comprehensive analysis of the Tanzania banking industry which has been well received by the industry.

Hugh was a regular contributor to Ernst & Young’s annual international Donor Dynamics publications on financial sector related issues. The most recent publication was in May 2009 where he wrote an article on gaps in financial services in Tanzania.