PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Harsha Moily

Position: Founder and CEO
Organization: MokshaYug Access
Unitus partner since: 2007

MokshaYug Access, serving the rural Bagalkot district of India, joined the Unitus portfolio of partners in October 2007. Harsha Moily, the founder and CEO of the organization, is one of the many dynamic, visionary leaders who are working with Unitus to catalyze growth and innovation in the field of microfinance.

How did you first get involved in microfinance?

I had heard about microfinance though news reports about Muhammed Yunus’ Grameen Bank, but the case study on microfinance in C.K. Prahalad’s bestseller Bottom of the Pyramid first triggered my interest. I am a firm believer that microfinance is a structured way of reaching the poor, if not the final answer to poverty alleviation. I got involved in microfinance because it lays the foundation for organized manpower, technology, and infrastructure, which can then be leveraged upon to build a rural supply chain. This then results in job creation and asset creation for the rural poor, which I believe is an essential prerequisite for a successful poverty alleviation model.

What was your biggest challenge in starting MokshaYug Access (MYA)?

People and capital were the two biggest challenges in starting MYA. We operate in Bagalkot district, which is one of the most backwards regions in India. Therefore, attracting top-quality talent in operations and strategic management to operate out of Bagalkot was challenging.

Capital was also a challenge because our business model wasn’t tried and tested. Therefore it was hard to attract large-size investments from venture capital firms at the startup phase. We had to raise funds from family and friends, scale up to a certain level, and then go raise funds. Since we were not a pure-play microfinance institution, it took a while to convince investors on the potential of this business model.

Who is your typical client?

MYA’s typical client is the daily wage laborer earning less than $1.50 a day for whom a microloan of $200 is just a start. She also needs to be supported by savings, working capital loans, insurance, and livelihoods services.

For example, Yallavva Siddappa Poojari comes from a very poor household and became a member of MokshaYug SHG (self-help group) in 2006. She earns daily wages from farm labour and walks long distances to work on the farm earning Rs. 25 (60 cents) a day to sustain her household. After becoming a member of MokshaYug SHG, she availed a loan of Rs. 7,500/- (US$188) and purchased three goats and enrolled for goat insurance which served to indemnify her against any loss due to death of the goats. One of the goats gave birth to two goat kids, which she sold for Rs. 1,400 ($35) each. Her earnings from the sale enabled her to shift her children from a public school to a private school with a better education facility.

Today, Yallava is close to paying off her first loan and plans to avail a second loan to purchase a cow or a buffalo which she believes will double her income. Yallava has increased her asset value by Rs. 9,500/ (US$237) and has provided quality education for her kids.

What is goat insurance?

This is an insurance policy that indemnifies against loss sustained due to loss of life of income-producing livestock such as sheep or goats.

Goat is the poor man’s cow and is a very important component of a poor household in drought-prone regions because of marginal lands unsuitable for other types of animals like cow or buffalo. With very low investments, goat-rearing is a profitable venture for marginal farmers and daily wage laborers because of its potential to generate milk, and for the value of its manure. Approximately 25 percent of our clients utilize the loans to purchase a goat or sheep. Goat insurance serves as a good risk mitigation tool for the poor as it reduces their losses and improves their solvency position. Clients pay about 5 percent of the sum assured as premium.

What inspires you?

The disparity in opportunities that exists between people in urban India and rural India due to the inefficiencies in the system inspired me to start MYA. Most people living in poverty work extremely hard through an inefficient system and at the end of the day have very little left.

What excites me is that with the economic boom in urban India—which is bringing in world-class resources in terms of people, technology and finance—we now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build an economy in rural India that can make a quantifiable impact on poverty. This inspires me to no end! I have to constantly remind myself that I am merely a guardian of this great business of serving the poor and that my job is to ensure that the poor are in a better-off condition now than when I found them.

What are your future goals for MYA?

MYA is in the process of redefining the microfinance industry in a challenging market. This requires us to build relationships with customers and partners and a team that thinks big, outside the box and has the discipline to execute. We would like to leverage the sheer volumes and diversity that that exists in rural India to build a poverty alleviation model that can be replicated across the poorest regions of the world.

Our aim is to develop a core competence in Rural Supply Chain Management (RSCM) by building a consistent degree of profitability, efficient operating systems, and partnership model with various product/service providers. We plan to reach 100,000 customers by May 2008, and rollout a range of services in microfinance, retail, healthcare, agriservices, dairy farming, and livelihood services to 1 million households by 2010.