The Problem
While microfinance has grown to an industry of an estimated 10,000 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) with €35 billion of outstanding loans, it is often limited in outreach, expensive, inefficient, and bureaucratic. Many microfinance institutions still rely upon outdated and time-consuming processes and almost all struggle to manage and develop IT systems. This results in poor products and services for clients, with large amounts of time spent servicing loans that are expensive and non-transparent.
The Approach
Musoni BV is a social enterprise that leverages mobile technology to provide cashless payments, lowering costs, reducing risk and improving efficiency. Musoni BV is now looking to expand its operations into multiple countries, to continue developing its innovative IT platform, and to also make its functionalities and services available to third parties.
The Progress + Traction
Since starting operations in May 2010, Musoni has disbursed over 10,000 loans to over 5,000 clients across Kenya (over $2M was disbursed in 2011. As importantly, client feedback has been extremely positive, praising the convenience, disbursement speed and affordability. In July 2012, the company won the award for “Most Innovative Use of Technology” at the prestigious Global Microfinance Achievement Awards and were also admitted as a member to the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Kenya.