Rural households living in extreme poverty in Kuria, Kenya are now able to access basic financial services with help from Nuru International. This is possible with the use of innovative technologies for mobile banking. The poor living in remote, rural areas are being equipped by Nuru to end the extreme poverty in their communities.

To address some of the issues that persist in providing financial services in rural areas, a viable solution is being worked out by Nuru. The U.S.-based social venture, Nuru has collaborated with Mifos cloud-based MIS and M-PESA mobile money transfer services for the same.

Financial training is offered by the savings-led program, The Community Economic Development model. Training in the fundamentals of financial planning, budgeting, saving, and responsible loan management is provided to Nuru members. The members are then eligible to apply for individual loans.

In a release, Vivian Lu, program manager for The Community Economic Development said, “One of the biggest problems we face when it comes to finance and banking for the extreme rural poor is how to disburse loans and payments to our farmers, we don’t want to give large amounts of cash to them because they have to cover long distances on foot, have no secure place to keep the cash, and robbery and theft are real concerns.”

The reach of mobile money in rural Kenya has been extended with Nuru’s microfinance program. A branchless banking structure has been created with help from the combined technologies of Mifos and M-PESA. Some of the basic financial services that traditional banks offer are now accessible to Nuru savings members in remote areas of Kenya.

Safaricom offers the mobile phone based money transfer service, M-PESA. Apart from transferring money to other users, the users are also able to pay bills and purchase air time with this service. Without needing to visit a physical bank, people will be able to complete basic financial transactions with this service.

Nuru will be allowed an affordable way to scale, as integration with M-PESA is being developed by Mifos. The reach in rural areas can be improved as Nuru will be able to access this cloud-based application from mobile phones and netbooks.