my guess is that the telecom companies are on their way to figuring this out. they have the political power to change laws and the technical skills to reach the poor. given that mpesa in kenya is shuffling around 400 million dollars a month, i'm sure the next year or two will see banks partnering with telecoms to loan to the poor. as far as the software challenges, http://mifos.org (launched by grameen) has been trying to help. i believe some of that team is on this list so maybe they can chime in on if software is a big part of making things work. On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 09:16, Colin Dixon <ckd@cs.washington.edu> wrote:
Having just listened to the podcast, it sounded like a big part of making the bank model work was the cost of banking computers and software.
Is this a big chance to do an OpenMRS/ODK-style thing for banking?
--Colin -- Sent from my Palm Pre ________________________________ On Sep 30, 2010 8:50 AM, Yaw Anokwa <yanokwa@gmail.com> wrote:
Say you want to make loans to millions of poor women in the developing world, to help them climb out of poverty. Is it OK to raise money from rich investors, who expect to make a profit?
Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance, says no. If you have investors who expect profits, you'll ultimately turn into something more like a loan-shark than a do-gooder.
Vikram Akula, founder of SKS Microfinance — a company that had an IPO earlier this year — says raising money from profit-seeking investors is the only way to spread microfinance quickly around the world.
NPR's Planet Money did a great podcast on the different viewpoints at http://is.gd/fCo5h. You can also watch the video of Clinton Global Initiative debate at http://is.gd/fCnWl.
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