hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1767.txt

Episode: 1767
Title: HPR1767: An interview with Ed Cable of the Mifos Initiative
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1767/hpr1767.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 09:03:05

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This is David Whitman, I'm at Linux Fest Northwest and I'm talking to my name is Ed Cable and I'm with MeFos Initiative.
So is MeFos a acronym for something?
Originally it was an acronym standing for Microfinance Open Source but now we're focusing on financial inclusion in general so MeFos itself is the name and it's no longer an acronym.
Well I want to say something, Ed has an interesting mustache and I asked him what I met him with a new Jesra so he said he did not so he'll probably look Jesra up to find out.
Yeah I'll be doing that this evening.
Okay and then so where do you live Ed?
Well I live in Crescent City but our lead developers on the project they're based in Seattle and Germany.
Okay and what interests you in the MeFos project and why are you putting your effort into it?
Yeah so I've been involved in the project since the early days and we've got a huge mission we're working towards which is bringing financial services to the more than 2 billion un-baked individuals worldwide.
So just knowing that there's such a huge problem that we're trying to overcome and that we're able to use open source technologies and the power of community to achieve that mission that excites me and motivates me to keep working on the project.
Okay is this your full-time job?
Yeah this is my full-time job so the MeFos Initiative we're a 501C3 nonprofit and we have a very small core team and I help to run the nonprofit in the community and then we have a small team of engineers who develop the core platform which is essentially
an open source core banking system.
So you're more like an administration and not in code development?
Yeah I'm more on the business development community management administrative side and so I'm not too familiar with the code just enough to understand enough of it to try and talk to developers here at events like this and get them motivated and jazzed up to work on the project.
Okay do you have developers them that are working that aren't paid developers in the project?
Yeah so we're a partner in volunteer driven organization so we have a number of local technology partners who create their own businesses providing support for the MeFos platform and they also contribute features back to the community and then we work with volunteers around the world who might be individuals or corporate volunteers who contribute to the project in many ways including code and other features.
Where can people find out information about the MeFos project?
The website is mefos.org and you could focus on GitHub if you look up openMF you can find our code base for the platform or code base for a community app as well as our Android applications.
Okay so many people want to know what the license is for an application and for the code you know what that is?
Yeah our license is the Mozilla Public License 2.0 and we wanted a license that was sort of middle of the road which allowed contributions to flow back into the platform but gave our partners flexibility to do more.
Have their own applications and innovation on top of it?
What type of person would use MeFos and can you describe a situation where somebody uses it to get finances to better their life?
Yeah so our project originated more as a core banking back office system for a brick and mortar financial institution.
So an organization providing small loans and savings accounts to poor women primarily in developing countries.
But since our next evolution to MeFos X our new platform we are a true platform with a modular architecture where we have a set of APIs which allows anybody who sees an opportunity to bring financial services to the 2.5 billion unbanked.
To build their own application solution it might be a mobile money application or cryptocurrency application on top of our platform.
Okay so you have an Android app you were just saying so how would a person find that in a Google Play Store?
Yeah so we have our Android app and this is for the loan officers who go out into the field and interact with the clients and that's in the Google Play Store.
And we also have client facing apps being worked on but all the code for each of those is located in our GitHub accounts.
Okay and how many countries is MeFos active in right now?
So in terms of financial institutions using the platform we're active and probably just a little more than 2,000 countries and we have a shade over 100 institutions serving 2.5 million clients like all on top of the MeFos software.
So what are some of the obstacles you face as a project?
Yeah so as a project you know we are working in emerging countries where sometimes infrastructure isn't the strongest so sometimes power and connectivity is a barrier but also just education around open source and how it doesn't equate to free.
But you know it is a highly secure solution but there are services and other features need to pay for to support that.
So I'd say education around open source in the cloud as well as you know some of the new forms of digital financial inclusion are barriers you know beyond just some of the infrastructure issues like connectivity.
So people that I guess I'm going to ask is the communications with cell phones that really helps drive this project is that correct?
Yeah so with feature phones and smart phones as well like the countries like Kenya and the Philippines that really leapfrog you know the previous technologies like PCs and laptops and most of the banking services are going directly from the mobile phones so you've probably heard of mobile money platforms like M-Pesa and Kenya where you know these digital ecosystems are really transforming how financial services can reach the under bank so they don't need you know a formal bank account
they can just have a mobile phone and have access to alone or savings account or insurance.
So looking for people you're looking for people to help support your project your nonprofit and what is it that people can do to help further the project?
What are the specific things you're looking for that you're aware of?
Yeah so we are nonprofits so if you're looking at providing donations we can bring those in the nonprofit but on you know the project and product side we're looking for volunteers in any fields of work so we're looking for people to work on the Java platform we're looking for developers to work on our AngularJS community app we're looking for developers on the Android app we need folks who can help with testing we need individuals to work on product management documentation translation marketing outreach.
You name it like we're a very small nonprofit and the whole you know gamut of work is available for volunteers to work on and we're you know working in the FinTech space so it's a pretty interesting place to be in so you can gain skills in this growing movement but also be giving back to a really neat and powerful missions.
How have you found a reception here at the Linux Fest?
Yeah it's been great this is our second year at Linux Fest and luckily or I guess maybe not luckily but most people who've come to our booth they haven't heard of us before but they've all been really enthused about the mission and the need to make you know banking technology and financial services in general much more open and accessible so I've been excited by how passionate people have been and the you know number of people are looking to volunteer and the number of people who bought T-shirts and like to design but also wanted to support our missions.
Yeah very good and so is there anything else you'd like to add?
I think just yeah check out our website mefos.org like you can hear all about our mission there like the software we're building like we're you know pretty excited about what we're doing so we are evolving from the financial inclusion space and we think we're one of the you know world's most modern like banking architectures out there so we're really excited for what people can do once they see our platform and the potential it has so we're looking to help build the bank of the future and we're looking to help build the bank of the future.
And what do you do to be a part of that?
Well thank you I'm excited that you're here and you have the project going because I know people in general need it helping hand and sometimes we have resources we can leverage to help them and the certainly I think that the microfinance line is very good especially for poor people so thank you for being here and thank you for docking to us on Hacker Public Radio.
Yeah thank you for all your time David.
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