A total of 34 microfinance institutions in Nepal have formed a consortium to set up a core banking platform.

The microfinance institutions (MFIs) will invest in ITcompany, Nepal Finsoft Limited, to launch the management information system (MIS) solutions platform, supported by the Nepal Microfinance Bankers’ Association.

The IT infrastructure system for development will be procured from Kathmandu-based IT firm, Puresoftware and is scheduled to go live in April next year.

Set to feature a centralised system hosted as a Shared Access Platform, the initiative expects subscribing banks to be able to connect to the ore system via desktops and tablet devices.

The initiative has also been supported by funding from Sakchyam – an access to finance initiative from UK Aid.

 According to Sakchynam, the lower overall costs as the cost of the Nepal Finsoft infrastructure will be shared between funders.