Operations
Field-officer productivity without turning collectors into robots
Design routes, receipts, and incentives for Ghanaian field officers so productivity rises without destroying the relationship model that susu and micro-lending depend on.
Akosua Frimpong, Field Operations · 15 August 2026 · 13 min read
A field officer in Kumasi or Ashaiman already knows the customers. What they lack is a list that is true this morning, a receipt that posts, and an incentive that does not punish them for a system outage. Productivity software that treats them like delivery riders will be sabotaged. Productivity software that removes the notebook will be welcomed — if the balance is right.
The queue is the product
Rank by amount, probability of miss, and last contact. Show the promise-to-pay. Allow a skip with a reason. Do not hide accounts because a manager is embarrassed. OrbitMFI collections queues are built for this, including HP watchlists.
Offline is not optional
Markets drop data. Allow a sequenced offline receipt and sync later. Duplicate detection on sync is mandatory. Customers should still get a number they can quote.
Incentives that do not game PAR
Paying only on collections volume encourages stuffing and rolling. Blend current collections, roll-rate, and complaints. Publish the formula. If officers cannot compute their bonus, they will invent a shadow one.
Safety and float
Do not send officers home with a bag of cash as a productivity hack. Mid-day MoMo sweeps and float caps are risk controls that also speed the day.
