Preliminary assessment of a pilot intervention run by BASIX involving the use of handheld devices to record microcredit repayments

One of the major activities in microcredit operations is the collection of loan repayments from clients in scattered, remote locations. Current workflows have Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) facing high costs from the door-to-door collection of repayments from clients, including the costs associated with paper-based systems of collecting and processing repayment data. In an attempt to reduce the costs of repayment data collection, the MFI BASIX implemented a pilot project in which field officers used handheld devices to record repayment transactions and print receipts, in place of the existing manual, hand-written process. In this report, we present a preliminary evaluation of the operational and financial viability of this technology-based front-end channel for microfinance client data management.