Andhra Pradesh State Government has launched a mobile book keeping facility for Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the state. It is estimated that this facility would be extended to 90 lakh poor women associated with Self Help Groups (SHGs) of the state.
This project aims to help poor women to access their financial transactions on mobile phones. At SHG meetings, information on existing loans of individual members, old loans, insurance details, details of assets and repayment dates will be uploaded on mobile phones by record keepers. All the information will be available in Telegu, the local language. The software was designed by the company Bluefrog Mobile Technologies which is also deploying the project.
Village organisations are currently being provided with mobile handsets that already have the book-keeping software uploaded. Each village organisation has approximately 30 SGHs attached to it and there are more than 40,000 book-keepers who are uploading data into the mobiles.
“The advantage of this initiative is that it promotes financial literacy among the members and also ensures transparency,” sais Mr Reddy Subrahmanyam, Principal Secretary, Department of Rural Development.
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