NAIROBI, Kenya — Credit unions serving a rural and impoverished area of this country have deployed remote service delivery technologies in a manner that rivals anything in the more developed world.
Using funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Council of Credit Unions has worked with Kenya's credit unions, known as SACCOs, to create what's informally known as "branch in a backpack."
The pilot is taking place in the village of Kakuyuni in rural Kenya, where there are no financial institutions and travel is difficult. Jesus Chavez, manager of WOCCU's project here, said the project is being tested with members of the Kakuyuni Dairy Farmers Self-help Group.
According to WOCCU, the technology involved includes a Dell laptop computer with 160 gigabytes of memory, an inexpensive computer-mounted camera, a portable scanner and point-of-service (POS) device with biometric capabilities.
The laptop serves as the branch's engine, with the mounted camera used to take pictures of new members in the field. The small scanner, which connects via USB port to the computer and taps its battery power to function, is used to copy legal documents required to enroll SACCO members. The POS device, which scans the print on each member's thumb or finger of choice, allows the CU rep to verify the member's identity for each transaction.
The device also sends the transaction's information for processing to the mainframe at WOCCU Services Group, a subsidiary that shares its development program's Nairobi office. The small laptop has limited battery life, which led the WOCCU program director to add a Powergorilla and Powermonkey to each of the backpack branches. The two devices, produced by Powertraveller Ltd., are batteries for the laptop and POS device, respectively. They are rechargeable using small portable solar panels that fit into the backpack. Each "branch" costs about $1,300.
The new backpack branch interacts with members' existing cellphone banking capabilities, an interactive technology that WOCCU introduced in Kenya in March 2007. The devices use M-PESA, a software program. "M" stands for "mobile" and "pesa" is Swahili for "money." By March 2009, two years after WOCCU introduced the technology, M-PESA transactions throughout Kenya totaled US$1.73 billion, WOCCU said.
"This year M-PESA has introduced online bill-pay," said Chavez.
Last week WOCCU signed an agreement in Kenya with I&M Bank House to support the SACCOs with the clearing services required to make the backpack branch a viable option. However, Chavez said plans are to introduce a smart card that includes the member's identifying thumb or fingerprint on its memory chip. The device also can act as a stored-value card, enabling easier transfer of funds through ATM or backpack branch usage.
