Cenfri contributes to building the fundamentals of welfare-enhancing digital economies. We prioritise digital transformation that is inclusive, sustainable, opportunity-creating and has appropriate safeguards. Digital transformation underpins much of our work and ranges from payments digitalisation to digital economy diagnostics, and digital skills assessments to direct digitalisation support. Cenfri also collaborates with policymakers and other public and private sector stakeholders in data-driven decision-making that is calibrated to the data available and is designed to strengthen the existing skills and data governance processes within these organisations. The Rwanda Economy Digitalisation Programme is our flagship evidence-informed policymaking and data-for-decisions intervention, but we have considerable experience in using evidence to generate insights and inform policymaking and business decision-making with a view to improved economic development outcomes. Our expertise in data, payments and digital identity enables us to contribute to current DPI (digital public infrastructure) conversations. |
The promise of open finance has led to a rapid proliferation in countries exploring implementation globally. However, it also comes with costs and risks—particularly as highly sensitive personal information is being made shareable. For African regulators and policymakers, open finance is an important emerging trend that requires a clear understanding
Ghana’s tourism industry presents an exciting landscape for growth, offering significant potential for youth employment and entrepreneurship. However, an effective digital presence is a prerequisite for competitiveness in the global tourism sector and in Ghana, digital technology adoption among tourism operators remains nascent. Data and digital technology increasingly enable tourism
Nearly US$3 billion has been generated through agribusiness in Africa, touching the lives of over 33 million users of digital solutions in this space. Digitisation in agribusiness has the potential to unlock greater value for sustainable livelihoods on the continent, especially those of women farmers, who often fall behind in
It’s not easy delivering data-driven financial services to the financially excluded in Africa’s emerging economies. That’s why technical assistance (TA) can be essential to the success of the region’s financial service providers (FSPs). Comprised of various forms of non-financial assistance provided by outside specialists, TA can take the form of
Digitalisation is disrupting markets and economic structures globally, and even advanced economies do not have a clear view of the new economy and the rules that will govern it. While it is clear that we’re going through a period of disruption and change, it’s not yet clear which of the disrupters will
Does this situation sound familiar? A development program runs its course, generating lots of intriguing insights and impacts – and experiencing its fair share of setbacks. These successes and failures could provide useful guidance to other initiatives. But once the program is over and the funders and implementers have moved
In recent years the platform economy has rapidly transformed various economic sectors such as hospitality, ecommerce and transportation. One of the most important subsectors of the platform economy is e-hailing. E-hailing platforms connect passengers and drivers of cars, taxis or any other form of transportation using virtual devices such as
What could Africa look like in 2048? The digital revolution is gaining ground across Africa. Ambitions around an increasingly digital and connected Africa, underscored by accelerated digitalisation in response to COVID-19 and technological change, have profound implications for life on the continent. These scenarios for Africa’s digital future aim to
The DataHack4FI competition seeks to advance financial inclusion through data innovation. It does this by encouraging and upskilling young finance, tech and data enthusiasts in Africa to use data and data analytics to collectively solve business challenges and to make appropriate financial services more affordable and readily accessible to unserved
We’ve been exploring how financial service providers can translate new insights from behavioural science into the design and delivery of financial services These systematic reviews conducted in 2017 and 2018 sought to identify behavioural interventions that have been proven to influence the credit, saving, insurance or payment decisions of customers. We’ve
As we explore how behavioural science can narrow the gap between customer intention and customer action, we have started to look at examples from specific financial services. Two sectors identified as playing a role in improving the lives of the financially excluded are insurance and formal remittances. Behavioural interventions and
