Whether it is digital payments, resilience for MSMEs or financial integrity, much of our work is underpinned by the desire to create more inclusive financial systems and services. Cenfri has successfully implemented several multi-year financial inclusion programmes:
Our view is that while financial inclusion targets (such as the percentage of adults with a bank account) are valid, they don’t tell you much when tracked in isolation. It is important to understand whether people use their financial services, and if so, whether this enables them to meet their needs. We have developed six financial inclusion measurement frameworks that outline this expanded understanding of financial inclusion.
We are aware of the importance of women’s financial inclusion and apply a gender lens to much of our work.
Will CBDC solve your financial inclusion woes or further exclude the vulnerable? Central bank-backed digital currency (CBDC) may alleviate financial exclusion barriers, but it comes with risks. Given some of the shortcomings of digital financial services in reaching financially excluded populations, central banks in developing and emerging markets have increasingly
Financial inclusion has evolved from a grass-root microfinance movement in the 1980s to a mainstream item on the development agenda. Its increasing prominence is attested, amongst others, by the formation of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the recognition of financial inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals and
How financial inclusion must evolve to enable a COVID-19 recovery Sub-Saharan Africa has long been one of the financial inclusion sector’s top success stories. But according to David Ferrand, despite strong gains in inclusion across the region, the overall impact of that newfound financial access has been disappointing. Even before
How digitising customer due diligence can strengthen providers during COVID-19 and beyond For the last two decades, financial inclusion practitioners have been addressing the barriers that prevent adults from accessing and using financial services that can improve their livelihoods. One of the major barriers, originally uncovered by FinMark Trust in
DataHack4FI Season 3 report The DataHack for Financial Inclusion (DataHack4FI) innovation competition encourages collaboration and skills development to promote the use of data and data analytics to solve financial and economic inclusion challenges, thereby extending valuable financial services to the underserved. The initiative seeks to create communities of innovation by convening
In our previous article we took a first look at the different ways in which COVID-19 and its associated economic measures impact men and women in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Using the nationally representative survey data from the COVID-19 Tracker, in this article we take a closer look at
The future of financial health measurement What is financial inclusion contributing in the face of COVID-19 and how do we measure it? The COVID-19 pandemic rages like a bushfire across the world – putting to test the development community’s long-held notion that financial inclusion would protect the poor against the
Financial health is a potentially powerful concept that is attracting interest around the world. Citizens, politicians and policymakers know that effectively managing one’s financial resources – being financially healthy – is central to the success of both individuals and broad populations. If financial health is to be a useful construct,
Financial inclusion is entering a new era The movement’s first era – which we’ll call “Financial Inclusion 1.0” – lasted from 2000 to 2019. During that time, the data tools employed to measure, track and guide financial inclusion efforts were effective in putting the sector firmly on the global development
As Beth Rhyne captured in her recent blog on Nextbillion, before COVID-19 an alarmingly large portion of adults around the world were not financially resilient. Gallup asked people how long they could meet their basic needs if their income stopped – by drawing on reserves or selling something. The percentage
Webinar: The impact of COVID-19 on financial health The impact of COVID-19 on financial health webinar explored the impact of COVID-19 on financial health in developed and emerging economies. It looked outside of Africa, to Asia and the US, where the impact of COVID-19 has been felt for longer.
