The Microfinance Interview is a monthly question-and-answer feature through which we engage key stakeholders of the sector such as MFIs, funders, service providers, development partners and regulatory authorities amongst others on issues of topical and mutual interest. This is in recognition of the influential role of microfinance as one of the four pillars of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) alongside financial innovation, financial literacy and financial consumer protection. In this instalment, the spotlight is on Payserv Zimbabwe, an electronic payments and business processes provider whose Microserv business unit offers a core banking system that was crafted to suit MFIs. Prince T. Choguya (PTC), the company’s Business Development Executive in charge of microfinance institutions, talks to the MFSB about the company’s products and services, their uptake and growth prospects. He also talks about the integration capability and scalability of their offering for MFIs as well as its Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Choguya concludes by discussing the company’s challenges and opportunities in respect of servicing the microfinance sector.
MFSB: How would you briefly describe your company’s products and services focused on the microfinance sector?
PTC: Payserv offers electronic payments and Business Processes. Payserv is the holding company for Paynet, Autopay, Microserv and Softserv. Specifically for our Microserv business unit, we have a robust core banking system that was crafted to suit MFIs of all sizes. It automates their entire process from initial customer data maintenance, transaction data management, loan repayments up to historical data of the client’s business. It is a system tailor made for winners in the Zimbabwe Microfinance sector.
MFSB: To what extent have your services been endorsed by MFIs in Zimbabwe? In other words, how many MFIs currently use the products?
PTC: Our Microserv solution is tried and tested, used in over 37 countries to date as Bankers Realm software, in Zimbabwe we boast of large entities such as Yonder Rift Enterprises, Fundhouse Finance, Lion Finance Bank, Hillthru Microfinance to name but a few. We have made our services known to the Microfinance mother body ZAMFI such that they have allowed us to market it to their members and also we have the blessing of the RBZ through the bank supervision unit responsible for MFIs.
MFSB: How would you describe the growth of your microfinance services over the years and what do the prospects look like?
PTC: The transition of Microfinance Institutions from manual processes to automated systems is a process not an event. It requires convincing them on the benefits of automating their processes. Microserv system is only slightly over a year old in the Zimbabwean market but the uptake has been quite significant.
MFSB: Financial Institutions are increasingly offering their services through Mobile Network Operators’ (MNOs) mobile banking platforms in order to manage costs and increase their reach. How does your system enable or facilitate such processes?
PTC: Microserv Bankers Realm system offers the platform to use mobile wallets as it allows integration with Mobile Network Operators of the client’s choice. Zimbabwe has moved to a cashless society where transactions are primarily wired from one end to another, therefore use of mobile banking platforms was a priority on our system.
MFSB: Is your system configured to enable regulatory and/or internal reporting processes?
PTC: Our system comes with over three hundred standard reports that meet International Financial standards, and also can allow addition of any report that the client feels is important to their entity. It is also equipped with all regulatory compliance reports.
MFSB: Can you describe your system’s capability to integrate with other service providers through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for the purpose of serving the microfinance sector?
PTC: Our system can be integrated with various other channels and any other service provider system that can benefit the Microfinance sector.
MFSB: Can you address the issue of scalability of your system? How capable is it of handling increasing volumes of work, or what is its potential to be enlarged in order to accommodate increasing transaction volumes?
PTC: Our system has no limit to the number of accounts, number of clients, and number of branches. It will grow with the needs of different organisations such as moneylenders, microfinance institutions, microfinance banks and commercial banks. Currently some fully-fledged banks are using the system.
MFSB: There are several Management Information Systems (MIS) on offer in Zimbabwe for MFIs. What’s Microserv’s unique selling proposition (USP)?
PTC: Our system is not a rigid system. It is customised to suit every customer’s needs, despite their differences in preferences and functionality.
MFSB: What are currently your biggest challenges in relation to servicing the MFI sector?
PTC: The harsh macroeconomic environment has scared away the microfinance institutions from acquiring our robust system as they feel the investment can be costly in such an economic environment.
MFSB: And opportunities. What do you think are your biggest opportunities in relation to servicing this sector?
PTC: It is to the Microfinance Institution’s advantage to have a good system in place. This will aid their management, improve their efficiency and growth. Hence, this system is for those with a winner’s mentality, everyone wants to grow and be associated with winners.
MFSB: Anything we haven’t discussed that you think our readers would want to know?
PTC: Yes, our system is on a hosted platform. It takes away the need for servers and IT people in the MFIs. We host it for you and we have a fully dedicated team that is ready to assist customers for any problem solved.