Enhancing Outreach of Microfinance:Role of Technology

World over research has been ongoing to reach the unreached. Challenges which have emerged are the foot proof identity, low level of awareness, lack of access to banking facilities in remote areas, information gap, illiterate populace, immature networks for deep penetration, infrastructure (roads, power, etc.) issues, etc. To mitigate the above issues, it is pertinent to study in depth the challenges and innovations to reach the deprived.

As we know, technology in the urban areas has been an important part of people's lives. On the other hand, in rural areas the use of technology is still an alien idea. Innovations like biometric smart cards will help in aligning the rural population towards the use of technology and will bridge the digital divide between rural and urban India. The strategy for universal access to comprehensive financial services will have to address two key challenges - (I) ubiquity and (II) comprehensiveness of range of financial services.

Each of the innovations brought out in this paper offers potential to be replicated for the greater good of the poor and the unreached. As competition among microfinance institutions intensifies, we should see a broadening and deepening of the technology innovation process. They will also successfully find ways and enhance means to outreach the millions of micro poor who have not been reached so far at all.