Message-ID: <32F0C82A.1B64@dti.net> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 11:11:22 -0500 From: Edmund Resor <mailto:edresor@DTI.NET> Subject: Discussion of Telecom Technology at Micro-Credit Summit To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
+++ Discussion of Telecom Technology at Micro-Credit Summit +++Associate Session: Monday, Feb. 3, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
How Can Electronic Payment Technology Empower Micro-finance Organizations and Their Members?
Moderator: Edmund Resor and Associates, (consultants to Grameen Telecom)
Room to be announced on main Message Board, at UNDP Suite, and at 11:00 am Challenge Session: Developing New Financial Products and Services in Microcredit Institutions
Please join us at this Associate Session to discuss how banking technology, electronic payments and telecommunications can be used to:
1. Empower borrower groups to handle more of the administrative work themselves. 2. Empower staff to support and train more borrowers. 3. Empower organizations to grow and/or replicate themselves faster to serve more people more efficiently and effectively, without sacrificing quality.
Background:
We have been asked by Grameen Bank to advise them on the establishment of Grameen Telecom, which will support a network of 40,000 Village Pay Phones (VPPs) owned and operated by Grameen Bank Members. We would like to help design this network and the necessary payment technology so that it can also help Grameen Bank better serve its members and create new models for other organizations.
We want to share ideas with others in the field because we believe many other micro-credit institutions can introduce similar technology to their organizations. We will give a short briefing with handouts and some suggested Internet sites and then open a discussion on what is working now and what are the plans and potential for the near future.
We would like to share ideas on how digital wireless telephones, such as the GSM system Grameen will be building, can help reduce transaction costs for micro-finance organizations and support new products such as electronic savings accounts, Internet based international money transfers, and flexible lines of credit as a compliment to fixed payment loans.
While we are wary of over investing in imported Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and of failing to realize the same elusive returns that many for-profit companies have not realized, we hope that by reducing cash float, appropriate ICT can be self-financing and that by using women entrepreneurs to serve the multiple needs of the community it can increase the quantity and quality of employment opportunities.
We also hope that by making staff more productive and offering pre-payment discounts and flexible lines of credit to established member borrowers we can reduce the interest cost to micro-credit borrowers and give them more control on how much interest they pay and more incentive to save or repay early when to do so is in their best interest.
We are particularly interested in meeting micro-credit practitioners and Credit Unions who have used bank ATM networks and urban telephone networks to better serve their members. We are also interested in sharing our experience in international money transfer and Community Communications Centers (phone and fax centers and Internet Cafes).
A follow up message will provide relevant Websites for background information. We will also post a report on the session to these lists: DEVFINANCE, DEVEL-L, COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENTBANKING-L, ENTRE-L. Feel free to copy to other lists as appropriate.
Edmund Resor, mailto:edresor@dti.net tel. +1 212 873-5464 Eileen McKeough, mailto:MMckeough@aol.com