Information and Communication Technologies for Development

Smart Microloans has decided on a microfinance solution for the village of Rajugela and is moving full steam ahead to create the program to enable the project implementation. Since Rajugela's villagers are predominantly illiterate, an agent will be required to enter their data into a loan request database. This agent will then present the data he has collected to different banks and those banks will reward loans to those villagers they see fit. It is ultimately important that the agent who performs the data entry be trusted by the villagers, but unbiased by them (he should not overelaborate/falsely report on their assets). The agent must also be independent of any bank commisions as such comissions could lead the agent to eroneously direct the villagers to banks with higher rates just because he was earning a comission from those banks. At first the agent will be paid by the India School Fund to ensure his impartiality. Further down the line, Smart Microloans foresees the banks paying the agent a flat rate for services provided. The ICT portion of the solution will probably be a smart phone like the Nokia N35, that will contain a simple program that will allow the agent to capture pertinant information from the villagers and deliver that information to each of the banks on a common platform (this will not be customized to each individual bank, the idea is to give the banks the villagers information, without necessitating them to visit the village).