West Africa

Owned by Ed Cable
Last updated: Jul 26, 2011Version comment

Ghana

Ghamfin Notes

From George

  • most MFIs v small in Ghana - range from a few K to a max of 96K clients
  • central bank just intro'd new regs that will increase reporting requirements on MFIs
  • integrated accting fairly important for a few reasons, but can be very very simple
    • need to produce reports across portfolio and financials for central bank - best if they can do that with a click
    • more complex accting software may be too complex for some MFIs
    • can be as simple as a GL plus a handful of core reports like a balance sheet and key ratios
  • Virtually all MFIs in Ghana have internet connectivity at minimum GPRS level via USB modems
  • combo of loans and savings across the institutions - some have only credit
  • MFIs in Ghana will now have regulator-mandated insurance offering / likely very simple
  • mostly Grameen / joint liability group savings with weekly repayments
  • govt implementing biometric ID - desire to use that to reduce multiple loans across MFIs (or at least check)

Nigeria

  • Accounting - interest in integrating with SQL-ledger for mid-sized institution in Nigeria.

Mali