This study documents Credit Indemnity’s process of transformation. Credit Indemnity started as a small, short-term lender that commenced operations more than a decade before the rest of the South African micro lending industry really started. Today they are part of a listed company and operate on a cash loan and repayment basis out of 118 branches covering the whole country. This study documents the process, its success and hurdles, through the eyes of its management, staff, clients and other stakeholders in the financial industry. It also identifies areas in which the organization needs to improve.
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Meeting the Challenge –The Impact Of Changing Technology On MicroFinance Institutions (MFIs)
The conventional banks rarely provide banking services to the low income segment due to high costs associated with it. However, technology has resulted in lowering down the costs per transaction, and thus impacted the banks to consider the options of servicing the low income segment. This note talks about the gains from various technologies such as ATMs, plastic cards, mobile phones, used by the present banking system to serve the people belonging to lower income strata.The conventional banks rarely provide banking services to the low income segment due to high costs associated with it. However, technology has resulted in lowering down the costs per transaction, and thus impacted the banks to consider the options of servicing the low income segment. This note talks about the gains from various technologies such as ATMs, plastic cards, mobile phones, used by the present banking system to serve the people belonging to lower income strata.
Taking banking services to the people: Equity’s Mobile Banking Unit
Equity serves some customers that live and work in remote rural areas, through a network of rural branches and through a system of mobile banks. In addition to providing services the mobile banking units are used for public relations and marketing purposes. Whilst banks such as Barclays and Kenya Commercial Bank closed their mobile services, Equity is rapidly expanding its mobile services. This paper explains the structure of each of the mobile units and their further evolution. Lessons from the mobile banking project are considered, and the performance of the units is explained. Client perspectives are aired.
The competitive environment in Uganda: Implications for microfinance institutions and their clients
This study explains competitive scenario in the microfinance sector in Uganda. It provides overview of the Ugandan microfinance market and chalks out its characteristics. Going further, the study also underlines various concerns to respond to the challenges relating to competition. It details out overview of international experience on competition relating to over-indebtedness, clients behaviour, niche markets, pricing and mergers and acquisitions. The study also discusses donors’ role in various degrees of competition—monopoly, competition and saturation.
An in-depth assessment of the Ugandan microfinance market—Qualitative-side study report
This study aims to understand why and how clients make the various choices to use different financial service providers in the main markets in Uganda; how and why clients have moved between financial service providers; understand how clients are using the many options available to them (including accessing financial services from several sources simultaneously) and assess the implications for the MFIs operating in these areas.
Lessons from MicroSave’s Action Research Programme 2002
MicroSave’s goal is to promote the development of high-quality financial services for poor people. This report documents the progress made under the Action Research Programme during 2002. It presents MicroSave’s package of services, summarises the lessons learned from MicroSave’s Action Research Programme, covers the selection of ARPs, presents an overview of results, and then details the activities undertaken with each of the partners.