Abstract
This study was motivated by the need of the identification of the ICT devices used in the Nigerian microfinance sector and the formulation of infusion models for each identified ICT device. 126 Structured questionnaires were used to collect information regarding the use of the ICT devices used among respondents of nine (9) microfinance institutions selected from South-Western Nigeria. The different ICT devices identified consisted of smartphones, SMS, e-mails, computer hardware, telephone banking, magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) cheque, bank websites or mobile banking applications, teleconferencing, electronic point-of-sale (E-POS) services and financial ERP software applications. The results showed that majority of respondents who used ICT tools were customers who were traders with a majority age group of around 21-30 years. The results of the study also showed that all ICT tools were adopted in the same year (1999) by bank staffs. The results showed that although all the ICT devices identified were adopted in the same year, it was observed that about 65% of the respondents adopted smartphones and SMS while less than 16% of the respondents acquainted themselves with the other devices. Polynomial functions of degree, m were used to formulate the infusion model for each ICT devices identified based on the yearly cumulative distribution of the number of users. The infusion models formulated can be used to estimate the number of users of ICT devices for any given year from the year of adoption of the ICT device.
Highlights
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are institutions that provide financial services to poor and low-income households, allowing them to better manage their risks, achieve consistent consumption patterns, and develop an economic base [1]
Based on the findings of this study, the Information and communications technology (ICT) tools investigated among the 126 respondents chosen for this study were: of smartphones, SMS, e-mails, computer hardware, telephone banking, magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) cheque, bank websites or mobile banking applications, teleconferencing, electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) services and financial enterprise resource planning (ERP) software applications
The results showed that users within the age interval of 21-450 years (40.5% for the interval 21-30 and 26.2% for the interval 3140) were more likely to use ICT tools compared to other respondents (Table 2)
Summary
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are institutions that provide financial services to poor and low-income households (and their microenterprises), allowing them to better manage their risks, achieve consistent consumption patterns, and develop an economic base [1]. Information and communications technology (ICT) as the use of electronic devices for sending-out, storing and receiving information [2]. ICT is an umbrella term that involves any communication application or device, encompassing; television, radio, satellite systems, cellular phones, computer hardware and software. Microfinance loans tend to have high interest rates in order to recover the high costs of loan administration. ICT can allow MFIs to lower the cost of loan administration, and offer more affordable and flexible loan products to clients [5]
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