A mobile-based system for loans management: a case of banque de gestion et de financement

Abstract

As technology has evolved and has embraced nearly all sectors of human daily life, bank processes are not left behind. Moreover, mobile technology penetration and internet access in Africa have increased a lot. In Burundi, internet users have increased by 452 thousand (+39%) between 2020 and 2021. Therefore, the introduction of a mobile system for the banking process would be in line with the region’s digital trends. As for the case of the Burundian bank, the Banque de Gestion et de Financement (BGF) some processes are still done manually and the physical presence of the client is mandatory. This is the case in the loan application process. Existing studies have presented digital solutions for loan management but the studies are not tailored to Burundian banks' processes and regulations and there are security issues that are not addressed. To tackle the above challenges and enhance the loan management process, this study proposes a mobile-based system that manages the loan requests: the customer applies for a loan and is informed of the approval or rejection of the application online without reaching the banks’ offices. The system provides feedback to the customer within fewer processes and in secure and reliable conditions. The proposed system does not incorporate the entire loan management process. The flow of information within BGF departments during the loan application analysis is not included in the proposed system. The system development process was based on the agile model methodology and the prototype was completed with the use of tools such as android studio, html5, css3, angular JavaScript, bootstrap for the front end, and PHP and MySQL for the back end. The system verification and validation included 10 participants from BGF (staff) and 15 BGF customers. The 25 participants evaluated the proposed system and gave positive feedback regarding the performance, ease of use, and usefulness.