TOOLKITS Digital Financial Inclusion Toolkit
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This is a prototype. Please bear with us while we complete it.
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Using a web tool to monitor microloans to SMEs along with in-person customer service.

What it does: The web tool developed by the UNDP Cabo Verde Accelerator Lab supports the monitoring of microloans. Web-based and multi-platform, it pulls data from several sources: the Social Security Institute, the revenue authority, and commercial banks in the case of bank loans. An additional module integrates data from (typically telephone-based) follow-ups in the field. This data allows a quick analysis of each MSME’s position, and lists ones with non-compliance issues for faster action. The objective is to monitor microcredits, allowing the agents in charge of non-compliant loans to pro-actively propose solutions to the MSMEs affected. As a part of the solution, the lab provided a physical customer service desk at the main street market in Cabo Verde, Sucumira.

Value proposition: A data-centric approach to microloans compliance allows organizations in charge of supporting businesses to streamline their operations, and provide faster, more personalized support to each MSME.

Why and when to use it: This tool is most useful when (1) the volume of microloans is high and (2) there is a variety of loans and other support instruments available to MSMEs. The combination of these two conditions multiplies noncompliance risks and creates complexity in operations, to which the web tools offer a solution. On the first point, compliance officers can become overwhelmed when there are too many loans to process. On the second point, working with a variety of loans and support instruments, each with their own procedures and metrics, makes it difficult for compliance officers to develop a single, coherent routine.

Known issues and troubleshooting: For this tool to work you will require: 1) An existing catalogue of offers 2) Training of staff and providing a physical location to be a “go to” troubleshooting center within the vicinity of the entrepreneurs.

Context: As they scrambled to provide support to MSMEs struggling with the COVID-19 crisis, various public and private institutions in Cabo Verde created different support programs. Some of them consist of, or include, the provision of microloans. The very success of these programs created the need for a tool to allow more dynamic follow-up. ProEmpresa, the agency in charge of supporting the business community, manages several such programmes; it partnered up with the Lab to build such a tool.

Cost: The Accelerator Lab funded this effort with a 15.000 USD investment. This can be broken down between 5.000 USD for Improving customer service at the Desk and in the Field - Sucupira Market and 10.000 USD to produce the Attendance Registration Module.

People: For colleagues who seek to replicate the experiment, the following roles are needed:

  • 1 consultant to support training for agents in the field
  • 1 programmer to develop a digital tool

Focal point: Sofia Silva

Country, year, and language : Cabo Verde, Period: 2020, Portuguese.

Resources: TORs for a consultant to develop the digital solution (in Portuguese). Use this resource to frame the problem and set tasks when hiring consultants to support you in a similar initiative.