Grameen Foundation and CGAP Host Tech Roundtable in Kenya - Advancing Back Office Systems for Microfinance
As the microfinance industry seeks to scale both its outreach and impact, core back-office systems and technology continue to be a great challenge for microfinance institutions worldwide. In October, Grameen Foundation and CGAP, with support from MasterCard Foundation, launched a series of industry-wide workshops to start a unified dialogue to address this challenge.
Several key themes emerged from this initial discussion amongst global leaders across the sector representing funders, technology providers, microfinance practitioners, and global networks.
Grameen Foundation and CGAP are now exploring these themes in further detail, taking the discussion down to the regional level at a series of three regional workshops. The first is taking place today, February 23, in Nairobi, Kenya with two additional roundtable discussions taking place in India and Latin America in 2010.
More than twenty-five participants representing software and technology providers, governmental bodies, funders, regional associations, national networks, and the leading MFIs across East Africa are coming together to collaborate and identify actionable steps to address these challenges:
Cost: Are back off systems too expensive? What can the industry do to bring down costs? How can disruptive new technologies and business models make solutions more accessible?
Risk: How can MFIs mitigate the risks of technology? Why do so many projects take longer and deliver less than expected? How can tech providers and MFIs work together to reduce these risks?
Value: Where is the value in technology, especially back-office systems? How can this value proposition be made clearer and more apparent to MFIs looking to invest?
Click here for a summary of the initial workshop from October in Washington, DC (.pdf)
Once the workshop has concluded, we will post a summary of the key points and topics discussed as well as more details on upcoming workshops. Grameen Foundation will have a busy next couple of months in Kenya so stay tuned for updates.
Craig Chelius, our Global Consortium Advisor, will be presenting on Measuring the Return on Investment for Technology in Microfinance (.pdf) during the AITEC Banking and Mobile Money COMESA 2010 Conference on Feb 24 and 25 in Nairobi, Kenya. George Conard, Executive Director of our Technology for Microfinance Initiative will be speaking on the Innovations in Information Technology that work for the Clients and the MFIs panel at the upcoming 2010 Regional Microcredit Summit in Nairobi on April 7 - 10.
News Log
- Community Spotlight (12)
- ThoughtWorks HSP Team Invigorates Mifos X Community
- First Mifos Deployment in Latin America
- Hugo Technologies
- Outreach on the Ground - May 2012
- FINA and MFC launch Mifos in Laos
- SolDevelo
- Profamilia Goes Live with Mifos in Mozambique
- SolDevelo: Nimble Java Ninjas Fighting Poverty from Poland
- Conflux Mifos Roadshow
- Kongalend Deployment Kicks off in Namibia
- Mifos Specialist pushes forth in Mozambique
- Father and Daughter bring Mifos Technology to Senegal
- Company News (19)
- Global Launch of the Mifos Initiative - June 11 at Pivotal Labs
- Mifos at LinuxFest Northwest
- Mifos X on FLOSS Weekly
- Ready for New Heights at the FI2020 Global Forum
- Conservancy and COSM announce the Mifos Initiative
- 2013 Mifos Community Choice Awards - Honoring our Finest
- Take 3 = Triple the Impact
- Mifos Summit Day 2 Reflections
- 2013 Mifos Summit in Jaipur has Begun!
- How You Can Get Involved
- Remixing Microfinance
- OSCON's about to Kick Off!
- Mifos Transition Plan Finalized - Next Phase of Mifos Begins
- Grameen Foundation to Transition Mifos to Community-Led Effort
- Grameen Foundation Expanding Technology for Microfinance Initiative
- Scaling the Pyramid of IT Adoption
- Grameen Foundation and CGAP Host Tech Roundtable in Kenya - Advancing Back Office Systems for Microfinance
- Grameen Foundation and Microsoft Join Forces to Accelerate Impact of Technology for Microfinance
- Collectively Advancing Technology for the Industry with CGAP
- Mifos at ACCESS Microfinance India Summit
- Industry News (2)
- Open Source Community (36)
- A Light-hearted Look at our 2014 GSOC Interns
- Google Summer of Code 2014
- Meet the 2014 Google Summer of Code Class of Interns
- Volunteer with Mifos in 2014
- 2013 Mifos Summit Recap
- 2013 Mifos Graduating Class for Google Summer of Code
- 2013 Summit in Photos
- Optimizing UX for Mifos X
- A Team
- Google Summer of Code - We're Halfway Home
- Google Summer of Code 2013
- End Poverty. One Line of Code at a Time.
- Aligning Volunteer Passion with User Pain
- GSOC Mentor Summit 2010
- Building a Better Community Experience
- Enabling Social Change through Software Development
- Leila E Translations - The Final Push!
- User Meeting - a Big Success!
- Summer of Code 2010 - A Journey Well-Traveled
- Meet the 2010 Google Summer of Code Mifos Interns
- End Poverty. One Line of Code at a Time.
- Mifos FLOSS User Manual Sprint
- Uncovering the DNA of a Great Team
- Adam Feuer on the PayPal X Developer Network
- Mentors Meet in Mountain View, Manifest Mastery of Mentoring
- Widespread Reach of Open Source Community
- Building a Local Technology Ecosystem
- Product Announcements (22)
- COSM Ships Mifos X Platform 1.0
- mLite Demo on Mifos X
- Mifos 2.5 (Samiha J) Ships!
- Mifos 2.2.3 Released
- Mifos 2.4 is Live!
- Mifos X API
- Samiha J Release Announcement
- Mifos Android Client
- Mifos 2.6 - Esha K is Live
- Esha K Release Announcement
- Vinolia I Release Announcement
- Mifos X - The Next Generation
- Mifos 2.2.2 Ships
- Community Ships First Mifos Release Post-Transition
- Margaret H: Mifos 2.3 Ships!
- Margaret H Release Announced
- Mifos 2.1.6 Released & SolDevelo to Extend Mifos 2.2
- SunGard Releases Data Migration Toolkit
- Mifos 2.1.5 Released
- Mifos 2.0 and 2.1 - a Closer Look
- Mifos wants to Hear your Voice
- Mifos Earns High Ratings in CGAP Software Review
- Star Contributor (15)
- Technical Topics (1)