Feature photo: Christine Alvitsa, Nuru Kenya Financial Inclusion Program Information Systems Specialist, enters data into Mifos at the Nuru Kenya office.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015—Today marks the beginning of the three-day Global Mifos Summit in Dubai. Two Nuru Kenya staff members, Ibrahim Sifuna (Financial Inclusion District Manager) and Christine Alvitsa (Financial Inclusion Program Information Systems Specialist), are attending this exciting learning and experience-sharing event. This is the second time that Nuru Kenya representatives have attended a Global Mifos Summit; Nuru Kenya is very humbled by Mifos’ gracious invitation and financial support.
The Nuru Kenya Financial Inclusion (FI) Program equips its members with the ability to plan and manage financial resources and cope with economic shocks while continuing to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. FI first adopted the Mifos platform in 2010. Mifos enables FI to track individual savings and loan portfolios, as well as client performance. Mifos integrates with accounting tools to track income and losses as well as compute assets and liabilities. It also provides opportunities to track branches, centers, and field officer performance. This helps FI assess the health of loan portfolios and other key data points.
Mifos provides Nuru Kenya FI members with access to mobile banking through a mobile phone platform called M-Pesa. High mobile phone penetration rates in rural Kenya means M-Pesa has the potential to help millions of people increase savings and facilitate cost-effective loan transactions in a safe environment. This is an advantage particularly in remote rural environments as it eliminates the need for members to visit a financial institution for every single transaction. Mifos has continued investing in research and cutting-edge technologies. With the introduction of its newest open technology platform, Mifos X, it is working to provide the core functionality needed to deliver financial services to the 2.5 billion poor and unbanked via global microfinance institutions, financial cooperatives, NGOs and community-based organizations around the world.
Mifos Community provides a forum to discuss critical issues in an innovative and engaging ways. Through participating in the community, FI has learned how to resolve critical technical issues in program applications. The support provided by Conflux Technologies team members has proved critical to FI’s success.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the Mifos Global Community for your tenacious support,” says Elias Fanta, Financial Inclusion Program Manager for Nuru International. “Your technology solution has enabled Nuru Kenya to help thousands of people lift themselves out of extreme poverty. We wish you a successful summit.”