Rural Finance Outreach in Central Malawi: Implications for Opportunity International Bank of Malawi

This study assesses the outreach of the mobile bank run by the Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM) in central Malawi. It used data gathered from a panel of 2,006 households by the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland in 2008 and 2010. The paper concludes that in order to sustain its current outreach and grow further, OIBM needs to combine its first mover advantage with continual improvements in its products, services, delivery mechanisms and information dissemination methods.