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Capacity-building
Innovation Lab (Innolab)
insight2impact (i2i)
Making Access to Financial Services Possible (MAP)
Risk, Remittances and Integrity (RRI)
Africa’s Digital Future
Research themes
Behavioural Science
Data and Analytics
Financial Policy and Regulation
Insurance for Development
Integrity – AML/CFT and Combatting Illicit Flows
Measurement in Financial Inclusion
Microinsurance and Health Financing
Remittances
Technology and Distribution
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Our team
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About us
About us
Our board
Our team
Our partners
Our independent research objectives (IROs)
Careers
Project opportunities
Contact us
Geographic scope
Programmes
Programmes
Capacity-building
Innovation Lab (Innolab)
insight2impact (i2i)
Making Access to Financial Services Possible (MAP)
Risk, Remittances and Integrity (RRI)
Africa's Digital Future
Research themes
Research themes
Behavioural Science
Behavioural science seeks to understand the underlying factors that influence judgements and decision-making. These can relate to the individual or to the contextual environment. Someone living with very little income, for example, will find it more difficult to make long-term decisions around savings or accessing credit. Their circumstances will force them to focus on their immediate needs compared to someone who might be under less constrained circumstances. A good example of this is when low-income adults borrow from informal providers at very high-rates for consumption. Integrating behavioural insights into our data collection and analysis strategies can advance our understanding and predictions of financial behaviour and guide us to design financial services that really help adults achieve their goals. With current innovations in survey design and data collection, we can test these insights quicker and learn faster. As part of our global i2i programme, we have looked into the barriers and opportunities for integrating new sources of data (e.g. social media) into financial service decision-making that can change the way we do business.
Data and Analytics
Financial Policy and Regulation
We use our expertise in a variety of financial sectors, in advising the development of inclusion-friendly financial sector policy and regulation. The work we do on any component of the financial sector is always placed within the broader financial policy and regulatory framework, and within a clear understanding of market dynamics and trends. Our work leverages all financial sector players, including commercial financial service providers, towards providing financial services to lower-income households. Whilst much of our work focuses on policy and regulatory outcomes, we do this in support of private financial sector development. Our extensive research in the area of financial policy and regulation spans Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Insurance for Development
Integrity – AML/CFT and Combatting Illicit Flows
Anti-money laundering (AML) and combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT) regulation in combatting illicit flows is currently one of the primary international financial sector standards which may, if not carefully implemented, impact on financial inclusion. We seek to support compliance with international standards in a manner that does not impact unnecessarily on financial sector development and inclusion. We have conducted extensive research in the area of financial integrity as part of our [Add link:] risk, remittances and integrity programme and beyond, across Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Measurement in Financial Inclusion
The increasing prominence of financial inclusion as a tool for development and growth has spawned extensive data-gathering initiatives to measure, understand and improve it. The result is a variety of new measurement frameworks leveraging this data. Early indications suggest that the financial inclusion strategies developed and guided by these measurement frameworks may not be leading to the results that policymakers want to achieve. Our work under the global [Add link:] i2i programme produces dedicated research in the area of financial inclusion measurement
Microinsurance and Health Financing
Microinsurance refers to the provision of insurance to lower-income households. If appropriately designed and intermediated, insurance products can play an important role in reducing vulnerability for low-income households as well as presenting profitable markets for commercial insurance providers. In addition, ensuring well-functioning health financing systems is a critical element of development policy and the delivery of health services. We have done extensive work on the regulation and development of microinsurance and health financing markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Remittances
Cross-border and domestic money transfers play a critical role in the financial strategies of low-income households and present many opportunities to extend financial inclusion. Our extensive research on remittances spans sub-Saharan Africa and forms part of our dedicated programme on risk, remittances and integrity.
Technology and Distribution
Distribution of financial services is a key constraint to extending financial services to low-income markets. Traditional networks are often costly, cumbersome and intimidating for low-income clients to use. As a result, much attention is currently placed on the development of new technologies (e.g. mobile phones) and business models (e.g. branchless banking) and on creating the regulatory space for these models to develop. Embracing technology in this regard will benefit not only the extension of banking networks, but also the distribution of all other non-bank financial services. We, therefore, see this as a key focus area in support of financial inclusion. Our work on new technology and distribution spans Africa and Latin America.
Insights
Insights
Databases
Interviews
Publications
Podcasts
Videos
Blog
News and events
Our team
Our team shares a common vision and DNA, committed to our mission of unlocking development outcomes through insights.
Our Team
Our Associates
Doubell Chamberlain
Founder and Managing Director
Doubell is the founder and managing director of Cenfri. He has extensi [...]
Hennie Bester
Director
Hennie specialises in the analysis of markets for financial inclusion [...]
Christine Hougaard
Technical Director
Christine has been part of the Cenfri team since 2008. She finds the i [...]
Herman Smit
Technical Director
Herman is a Director at Cenfri and the Head of Client Insights for the [...]
Mia Thom
Technical Director
Mia is a Technical Director, leading Cenfri’s Risk for development p [...]
Barry Cooper
Technical Director
Since June 2013, Barry has been collaborating with Cenfri on its retai [...]
Steph van der Westhuizen
Chief Operating Officer
Since June 2015, Steph has been responsible for Cenfri's enablement fu [...]
Louise de Villiers
Deputy Programme Lead
Louise specialises in survey methodology, questionnaire design and dat [...]
Jeremy Gray
Senior Engagement Manager
As a member of the Cenfri team since 2012, Jeremy has worked on a nu [...]
David Saunders
Senior Engagement Manager
Before joining Cenfri in 2012, David worked as a fellow at the ILO M [...]
Masiiwa Rusare
Engagement Manager
Masiiwa is currently the Engagement Manager at Cenfri. He manages rese [...]
Antoine Fourié
Engagement Manager
Antoine joined Cenfri as Editorial Manager in May 2017. He ma [...]
Chernay Johnson
Engagement Manager
Chernay is an Engagement Manager in the Client Insights division of [...]
Mari-Lise du Preez
Partnerships Manager
As Partnerships Manager for i2i, Mari-Lise puts her interest in networ [...]
Albert van der Linden
Senior Research Associate
Since joining Cenfri in January 2015, Albert has been involved with Ma [...]
Antonia Esser
Senior Research Associate
Antonia has been part of the Cenfri team since April 2016. Her main re [...]
Karen Kühlcke
Content Curator
Karen joined Cenfri in 2017 as the content curator for the i2i facilit [...]
Kate Rinehart
Research Associate
Since joining Cenfri in 2016, Kate has been involved in projects spann [...]
Nolwazi Hlophe
Senior Researcher
Nolwazi is a senior research analyst at [...]
Leonard Makuvaza
Senior Researcher
Leonard’s primary focus at i2i is to develop measurement frameworks [...]
Renée Hunter
Senior Researcher
Renée’s research to date has focused mainly on client centricity an [...]
Nichola Beyers
Senior Researcher
Nichola Beyers works as a senior researcher within the [...]
Matthew Ferreira
Senior Researcher
Matthew joined Cenfri in 2017 and he now works as a senior researcher. [...]
Michaella Allen
Senior Researcher
Michaella started as a research analyst at Cenfri in 2018. Since joini [...]
Matthew Dunn
Senior Researcher
Matthew started as a research analyst at Cenfri in 2018. Since joini [...]
Eden D’Oliveira
Communications Coordinator
Eden joined Cenfri as Digital Communications Coordinator within the Kn [...]
Fabrice Gatwabuyege
Researcher
Fabrice Gatwabuyege is a research analyst in the [...]
Pieter Janse van Vuuren
Researcher
Since Pieter joined Cenfri’s Risk team in February 2018, his work ha [...]
Jana de Waal
Researcher
Jana joined Cenfri [...]
Lucia Schlemmer
Researcher
Lucia Schlemmer is a research analyst at [...]
Lisa Bruwer
Sub-editor
Lisa joined Cenfri as an editorial intern in November 2016. She is now [...]
Tessa Kock
Financial Controller
Tessa has been part of the Cenfri team since 2009. She has more than [...]
Linda Stanford
In-house Accountant
Linda joined Cenfri at the beginning of 2016. Besides being the in-hou [...]
Gillian Lovatte
Project Portfolio Coordinator
Born and bred in Cape Town, Gillian joined Cenfri in 2017 as a Project [...]
Linet Engelbrecht
Office Manager
Before joining Cenfri in 2013, Linet worked in public relations for se [...]
Marie Gouws
Receptionist
When Marie joined Cenfri in February 2015, she had worked as a recepti [...]
Amanda Schoeman
Personal Assistant
Amanda joined Cenfri in February 2016. She has nearly 40 years’ se [...]
Thirza Stevens
Personal Assistant
Thirza joined Cenfri in August 2018 as the personal assistant to the m [...]
Anja Smith
Associate
Anja Smith joined Cenfri in 2008 as one of its founding staff members. [...]
Andre Swanepoel
Associate
In his 45-year career, Andre has worked in the insurance and banking i [...]
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