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. |
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
Recent Findex findings show that account ownership has increased, globally. But more people than ever are not using their accounts. And while digital payments accounts are on the rise, the number of savings accounts has declined since 2014. These findings have provoked debate about the future of financial inclusion and
DataHack4FI Innovation Award Season 2: Winner of the Women and Youth focus prize for Rwanda In Rwanda, as elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, rotating credit and savings associations (ROSCAs) and savings groups are a big part of people’s financial lives – especially for women. With just under 1 million individuals making
InvestXD created a digital investment platform for women and youth Understanding drivers of usage for financial products and services is important for (long-term) savings, as few youth and young adults save, and even fewer do so through formal financial services institutions. There is also a significant gender gap, as is
Why focus on outcomes of use? The drive for greater financial inclusion is based on the understanding that financial inclusion has impacts on public policy goals such as socioeconomic development, poverty alleviation and growth. Financial sector policymakers set financial inclusion targets and design interventions towards these ultimate impacts, and development
ZedCredit from Zambia provides access to savings, loans and a credit score via their mobile app. ZedCredit is a fintech based in Zambia that participated in the DataHack4FI Innovation competition, Season 2. ZedCredit was conceptualised and founded in 2015 by Tundwa Siyubo, a business graduate from Zambia’s National Institute of Public Administration. It was registered in
DataHack4FI in-country winners from Ghana offer a multiple-database-verification API solution to identity verification. A lack of verifiable identification presents a significant barrier to individuals’ access to financial services. According to Findex 2017, 20% of financially excluded individuals mention a lack of identification as the main reason. In sub-Saharan Africa specifically,
Business executives in Africa frequently bemoan the difficulty in hiring local data science talent. And so, when we advertised for aspiring and experienced data scientists to participate in the insight2impact DataHack4FI Season 2 competition, we were pleased to receive applications from over 190 people. Across the continent, it seems young people
Financial inclusion is an important tool for enabling development and improving the lives of the poor across the globe. Up to now, most governments and organisations that seek to measure aspects of financial inclusion have focused either on access or uptake of formal financial services. While these measures are important,
The housing shortfall in Africa is immense. For instance, the World Bank (2017) estimates that across eight countries in West Africa about 800,000 new housing units are needed every year to address the housing shortages in those countries. Yet, banks in these countries collectively only issue 15,000 new mortgages per
