Knowledge Exchange Savings and Loans Access Strengthened Through Digitized Accounting

Opportunity supports informal savings and loans groups to help people not yet ready for formal banking to access convenient, interest-bearing savings and to access loans right in their villages or neighborhoods. But, these groups face challenges handling complex book-keeping and with the low level of capital in their groups. Opportunity's Agricultural Finance and Digital Innovations Group teamed up with DreamStart Labs to pilot digital record keeping that simplifies and speeds up record-keeping, and holds promise for supporting linkages to formal finance. This KM Insight shares a 7-country evaluation of the "digitization" pilot, sharing the substantial benefits to groups, as well as some implementation challenges Opportunity seeks to overcome going forward.