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Financial Inclusion


With an emphasis on inclusive financial integrity, Cenfri provides technical assistance, tools and skills building to policymakers, regulators, supervisors and compliance heads looking to apply risk-based and outcomes accountable approaches to money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation-financing risk strategies. Combining our understanding of relevant risks, familiarity with the FATF guidelines, knowledge of identity and identity-proofing capabilities and leveraging our competency in risk data analytics, we support financial service value chains undertake assessments from national level to the financial product level, thereby enabling the adoption of appropriate customer due diligence practices. 

Cenfri is committed to assisting countries to move off the grey list responsibly, shaping national risk assessment processes with empirical data and working with remittance services’ compliance managers to ensure that low-income households are not disproportionately affected in receiving low-value remittances. 

We are interested in mitigating the longer-term impact of illicit financial flows using digital technology (regtech, suptech and AI) to evaluate and monitor illicit flows and enhance inclusive financial integrity.

We have worked with BankServ Africa, FSD Africa, GIZ, IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances, UNCDF and AFI on a range of financial integrity and identity projects.

Financial Inclusion

Mapping the retail payment services landscape in Mozambique

41.14% of the adult population Mozambique has either never heard of a bank (22.5%) or does not know what it is (18.9%). There still remains a long way to go before electronic payments become part of daily life for most Mozambicans. This 2012 study analysed the country context, demand, supply

Financial Inclusion

Mapping the retail payment services landscape in Malawi

In Malawi, 81% of people do not have access to formal payment services or mobile phones. Few financial institutions (public or private) actively pursue the unbanked market through technology and new distribution channels. This 2012 study analysed the country context, demand, supply and regulatory framework for payment services in Malawi

Financial Inclusion

The South African market for hospital cash plan insurance

In 2012, there were estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 million hospital cash plan (HCP) policies in effect in South Africa, with total lives covered estimated to be 2.4 million people. The market is relatively large and rapidly growing with an estimated 50,000 new policies sold every month This

Financial Inclusion

Opportunities for insurance inclusion in Nigeria

In 2011, insurance reach in Nigeria was extremely low and the market was plagued by a number of challenges, many of them relating to distribution. The reach of the insurance market was limited to the higher-income, formally-employed male market and even those who were supposed to have compulsory insurance (e.g.

Financial Inclusion

The South Africa-SADC remittance channel

In 2012, it was estimated that 3.3m SADC migrant workers in South Africa sent around R11.2 billion home each year; R7.6 billion of which is estimated to flow through informal channels such as sending cash with a bus or taxi driver. The sheer volume of cross-border remittance flows and the

Financial Inclusion

Kenya’s microinsurance landscape

In 2010, conservative estimates of the voluntary microinsurance market was 150,000-200,000 policyholders, but if formal credit life insurance policies are added to this number, the estimate increases to 650,000-700,000 users (3% of the Kenyan adult population). If only 1 million M-PESA users and 1 million Kenyans with bank accounts who

Financial Inclusion

Conservative compliance behaviour in South Africa

The quest for inclusive financial markets is a challenge for both business and regulatory models as it requires new and largely unknown portions of the market to be served. This quest can at times be frustrated by regulatory barriers to inclusion that make it costly to provide financial services to

Financial Inclusion

Mzansi and Zimele product standards in South Africa

Insurance usage in South Africa has for a long time been out of reach of the majority of the low-income population. In 2004, the FinScope survey of financial services usage reported that only 13% of the country’s low-income population had at least one long-term insurance product. The usage figure for

Financial Inclusion

Funeral insurance

Funeral insurance is not just insurance business as usual and requires a dedicated understanding of the dynamics driving funeral insurance markets. This applies to both insurers seeking to effectively target and distribute it, as well as for regulators seeking to find the right regulatory approach to it. Published by ILO