MicroFinance Banks play very important roles in the economic development of any country. A lot of people especially the rural dwellers do not have access to a bank. The rest have no alternative to the local moneylenders whose exorbitant interest rates reinforce the indebtedness that contributes to a lifetime of poverty.

Access to credit enables households to accumulate wealth and assets, which allow them to better cope with their economic and social vulnerabilities. The majority of these Microfinance organizations are donor funded, which is an obstacle to their scalability and sustainability. It's only a few of the microfinance banks that can claim financial self-sufficiency.

To combat this problem, MicroFinance banks are using new information and communication technologies to improve their operations in three main areas; expanding their customer base and extending their reach into underserved areas, establishing secure identities for customers, and lowering transaction costs.

Manual operations have remained the norm, as they are more suited to the systems established and economical especially more so in the face of the present high costs of technology but now there is the existing trend of co-existence and integration of both the manual and technology systems.

Information communication technology is a strategic asset for microfinance banks at every stage of their business circle. The use is contingent upon the emergent technology needs of the sector, the technology advancement in the information technology sector, the infrastructure especially power including alternative sources and telecommunication and the wider economy. The interplay of these sectors determines the future role of information technology in microfinance bank arena.

New technologies and applications are constantly being developed aimed at increasing the reach and efficiency of microfinance banks. Improvements will make operations more secure, increase transparency, reduce repetitive tasks, and provide data mining capabilities that will allow microfinance banks to compete effectively and better manage their operations. As prices of relevant technology like ATMs, voice recognition, smart cards, and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) continue to fall; more microfinance banks will be able to take advantage of the benefits they offer.

In order to have consolidated data, which is timely, speedily and regularly available, it requires well-developed technology software. In the conventional banking arena, software packages are contributing to the increase in efficiency so the microfinance banks should deploy software applications that will enable them analyze their loan portfolio and disseminate information efficiently.

Software has huge potential for the IT sector; it enables microfinance banks to consolidate their loans. Once microloan details are stored in an electronic format, their amounts can be combined into a larger loan that can be bought by a larger bank, or securitized to capital markets, thereby providing a much needed supply of capital to microfinance banks.

Microfiance banks should deploy new "end-to-end" technology solutions for as well as new organizational forms that could increase cooperative efforts such as credit bureaus or pooling loans across many microfinance banks to access capital markets. Secure identity can also protect microfinance banks from customers who have proven to be bad credit risks shopping for loans from one branch to the next.

Addressing this problem requires sharing customers' credit histories among microfinance banks operating within a country. The software will help document transactions, and it allows for more macro-level analysis of lending patterns, cash flows, and repayments.
The networking of branches is quickly becoming a requirement in the industry, although there are still a number of challenges. There are applications that Microfinance banks can deploy that will link the head office to the branch offices.

Branchless banking solutions that will feature online disbursals, data transfer to managing banks, savings/credit account modules, and financial accounting system will help reduce wait time queues and at counters and enhance customer experience. It will provide services in users' own environment in which they could do banking and finance transactions for convenience and accessibility; to reduce the risk of handling cash; it will provide low-cost financial services to rural and under-serviced communities and provide a system that delivers efficient payments linked to a bank account.

Other software features that could be deployed by the sector include the ability to record meeting attendance and savings/credit account transactions, and to exchange data with the central bank office. All these and more are the features of the latest offering from the stables of Nigeria's leading Financial Technology power house Progenics Corp Limited called Symbols MicrofinanceBank Application.