Putting Technology to Good Use
This past week I attended the Hyperion Solutions 2005 Global Conference. While the Conference was great for anyone interested in Business Performance Management software solutions, it was a featured non-profit organization, Opportunity International (which Hyperion and its partners donated financial mangement software to), which really caught my attention.
Who would think that in developing countries a microloan in the range of $50 to $200 would be enough money to give an ultra poor entrepreneur the funding necessary to get themselves out of poverty. With the tagline “Giving the poor a working chance”, Opportunity International has found that “many of the world’s poorest people are a good credit risk” and has a demonstrated repayment rate of 98% which then allows the repaid money to be reloaned to another needy entrepreneur continuing the cycle. What an awesome way to help millions of families in countries, such as tsunami-ravaged India and Indonesia, as well as AIDS-stricken Africa, help themselves to get out of poverty.
I think it’s great to see how a techology solution can be provided and utilized by business professionals to benefit countries and people that by themselves would never be able to afford to do so on their own.
Not to minimize my admiration for the Opportunity International program and all those that worked to create and now run that organization….but I can’t help but wonder what would need to be done to get something like that to work in the U.S. A loan of $50 to $200 certainly wouldn’t help any poor or homelss person in the U.S. get very far at all…..
