Transitioning to Mifos and the Mobile Banking Video

The end of my rotation is quickly approaching. Vivian, my counterpart in the CED Program, arrives on Monday, then I will be transitioning out of the project. I am set to fly out on 11 July. Time always flies on our Foundation Team tours. The past 5 months have gone by more quickly than summer vacation.

Looking back at the program, we have come a long, long was since we started. As we approach the completion of our second year in Kenya, it is remarkable to think of our humble beginnings. Just over a year ago, the savings clubs were just starting. Now, we have members who have graduated from the yearlong vetting process and managed to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time. I cannot help but be amazed at how far they have come.

I am very thankful for the wonderful people with whom I work. The CED team (Moses Woirungu, Peter Gati, Joseph Gikaro, and our Field Officers) have come a long way since we started. They have all become quite skilled in finance and experts in using the Internet via mobile phone. Next week, a couple new netbooks will be arriving, so the CED team will begin training on computers in preparation for Mifos

Vivian and I are going to be testing Mifos next week, so I am very excited to get this all set-up. As you may remember from my video post two weeks ago, all of the CED Field Officers have become quite skilled with mobile phones. In the coming weeks, we are going to be expanding on their skills to incorporate more and more mobile banking activities.

In a matter of weeks, we will be transitioning from Excel spreadsheets and paper ledgers to Mifos and Google Forms accessed through Internet-enabled mobile phones. This is sure to be an interesting transition, so rather than talk about it, I think that it would be better to do a video. I will cut this blog short to save some footage for next week.

Until then, thanks for reading!

About Aerie Changala

Chief Executive Officer — Aerie earned his BA in International Affairs from John Cabot University (Rome, Italy) and his MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK). He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Burkina Faso. Aerie has been part of Nuru’s leadership since Nuru’s earliest days. Aerie initially served as Nuru’s second Team Leader in Kenya (following Jake) and has since led scouting, launching and designing of Nuru’s projects. Having spent the majority of his adult life living throughout Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, Aerie has traveled extensively, speaks seven languages, and brings a global perspective to his work at Nuru.