SBS’ Senior Lecturer Dr. Freddie Acosta’s teaching case entitled ” Musoni: Next Generation Microfinance” co-authored with four MBA students, was accepted for publication by Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies (EEMCS) in the UK.

 

EEMCS is an online collection of peer-reviewed case studies focusing on business decision-making and management development throughout key global emerging markets. Cases are written by case writers working in or closely with developing economies, offering local perspectives with global appeal. EEMCS was developed in 2011 in response to increasing demand from business educators and practitioners for quality-controlled teaching cases focusing on global emerging markets. Teaching cases are used in classroom situations to stimulate learning and add practical knowledge. To support this, every case is accompanied with complimentary teaching notes compiled by the authors.

 

Musoni Kenya is a Kenyan microfinance institution (MFI) whose idea was conceived in the Netherlands. The Musoni business model is ICT-enabled, 100% mobile based, virtually paperless, and runs on an ICT platform housed in Musoni BV in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is built on tested mobile technology that allows huge savings on transaction and operating costs. Using mobile payments, clients receive and perform bank operations anytime anywhere. This saves transport costs, transaction time and increases safety as no cash has to be carried around sometimes in dangerous areas. The mobile payments enable clients to make large improvements in loan officer efficiency and makes tracing payments seamless, saving on administration costs. The Musoni branches are also inexpensive as they are only used as the point of contact with customers hence reducing the cost of setting up operations even in remote areas. These efficiencies are passed on to clients in the form of lower interest rates and to stakeholders in the form of good returns on investments. The company aims to use this knowledge, experience and global ICT platform to expand to other countries with a suitable mobile payments environment.

 

Dr. Freddie Acosta teaches Information & Technology Management and is also the Faculty Director at Strathmore Business School. He served as a Visiting Professor at the International School of Management (Senegal) and University of Asia and the Pacific‘s South-East Asia Business Studies (Philippines). His area of research pivots around the interplay of strategic management and information systems, as well as on the role of new information and communication technologies for organizational learning, knowledge management, transformation and innovation. He has studied problems of technology adoption and IS implementation in great depth. From an industry perspective, he is especially interested in those industries that are being transformed by recent technological advances.

 

Dr. Freddie Acosta, holds a BSc (Computer Engineering) from Mapua Institute of Technology, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Business Education and PhD (MIS) from University of Baguio, Philippines. He is a Harvard Business School-trained Case Methodology teacher (CPCL-2006) and IT leader (DIS-2008).

 

Co-authors in the case are MBA students Samuel Ndonga, Francis Aywa, Maurice Seda and Daniel Kamau.