E-Readiness Assessment Information System. A Case Study of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Kenya

Microfinance institutions provide lending facilities, money transfer and micro-insurance, among others, to the economically active poor, low-income households and micro and small scale enterprises in both rural and urban areas. However, digital financial service delivery channels and methodologies confront a number of challenges mainly the e-Readiness of both MFIs adopt modern and innovative information and communication technology and reduce or eliminate the digital divide. In terms of e-banking it is likely that some e-Readiness indicators are more revealing than others. At the same time, e- readiness indicators are not static; they are influenced by investments, policy, and a multitude of circumstantial socio-economic factors. In this paper, we meet these challenges and propose a generic assessment information system that can be used to assess the e-Readiness of MFIs in Kenya. With validation and a full blown practical implementation on sample MFIs, we demonstrate our system’s efficiency and scalability. Keywords: Assessment, Information system, Kenya, e-banking, MFI, Clients DOI : 10.7176/IKM/9-2-04