Crop Insurance

Opportunity International has partnered with the World Bank and its affiliated IFT Commodity Management Group to provide index based weather insurance to rural farmers in Malawi, Africa. This new policy, piloted among 892 low-income groundnut farmers in famine-stricken Malawi, was designed to payout if crops receive insufficient rainfall for groundnut production. In the past, banks have been unwilling to lend to farmers because of the risk of them defaulting on loans in the event of a drought. As a result, farmers had no access to finance and could not afford to purchase certified seed, a more costly producer of groundnut that increases both yield and value of the crop. Now, because of the new index based weather insurance, farmers are creditworthy and able to secure finances needed to purchase certified seed.

By clarifying environmental affects, such as drought, with the assistance of weather stations and establishing growth periods and expectations, farmers are able to secure funds and lenders are confident to issue loans.

Smart Cards

Millions of poor people are shut off from financial services because most banks require forms of identification that are too expensive for the poor. Few have birth certificates, passports or drivers licences and few can afford to get them. But without them, commercial banks do not want them as clients.

In Malawi, the Opportunity International Bank of Malawi has pushed the boundaries of microfinance and overcome this problem by using the cutting edge technology of fingerprint identification. Every client receives a smart card called the “Malswitch” that has their fingerprint embedded on a chip within the card. They can prove their identity by scanning their finger at a teller’s station or an ATM. Security is guaranteed because the biometrics can only be used by the authorized person. State-of-the-art technology has meant for the first time, clients are able to simply and safely access savings accounts.

Mobile ATMs

Opportunity International is piloting a project bringing mobile banks to rural areas in Malawi. Surveys of Opportunity clients in Malawi revealed that many travel as much as 600km just to save with the bank. Indeed, 85% of Malawi’s 12 million population live in rural areas. Wanting to meet the needs of clients, but avoid the high costs of establishing numerous rural branch offices, Opportunity International designed a mobile banking system using two bullet-proof, all terrain 4-wheel drive vehicles - one five tonne truck fitted with an ATM and one three tonne truck without an ATM for more remote areas like farms.

Carrying two bank employees, two armed Police Mobile Force guards and decked out with solar power, a GPS tracking system and satellite technology allowing real-time transactions, these vehicles will cover 26 service points in five districts on a weekly basis. They will visit designated market places on market days and operate through open windows. For a small fee that is less than a bus fare to the nearest town, clients will then be able to deposit or access funds using their Malswitch card.