Branchless Banking and Rural Outreach in Malawi: Opportunity International Bank of Malawi's Impact on the Market
The Financial Landscape study aims to document the financial services available in a particular area and how they are being used, including how client preferences have evolved over time. The study focuses on client access, with a broader and more inclusive view of this concept, defined as ability and propensity to make effective use of a service.
The work here centers on the service innovations of Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM), which received a grant in 2005 to pioneer a model of technology-driven, low-cost rural service delivery. The study draws together a variety of data to examine the value proposition of these service innovations against the area's other service options. This report is an endline study to a 2007 baseline (McGuinness, 2008), focused on changes between 2007 and 2010 that may correlate with the introduction of OIBM's innovations.
OIBM's banking van—a bank-on-wheels offering a full range of bank services at sites without brick-and-mortar branches—was the first of OIBM's innovations to be rolled out. It became the primary focus of research, though the status of other components of the outreach plan is discussed here as well.
We began with a relatively small set of questions focused on access to financial services, but, more particularly, changes in access over the past three years. Those included:
- What financial service providers offer products to clients targeted by OIBM? What has changed in this market over the last three years?
- What do clients know and understand about these financial service providers and the accessibility of these products and services?
- What product attributes are most and least important to the target client base? How does the baseline compare?
- What market segments are most and least served by existing services? How does the baseline compare?
The project deployed two major data collection strategies: 1) focus groups discussions (17 total); and 2) individual interviews (26 total). Research sites centered on the calling points of the banking van, following the original route established in 2007, plus interviews with managers of the area's financial institutions.
