Now reading: The joy of mobile survey design

Digital Transformation & Data


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.

Digital Transformation & Data

The joy of mobile survey design

I designed a mobile survey today and really enjoyed it. You might be thinking: of course it is satisfying, it is easy. But that really isn’t the case. Mobile surveys, and in this case SMS mobile surveys, require a different approach, and when you’re trained in a more traditional, face-to-face

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

Developing valid and reliable survey scales

The purpose of this note is to describe a process that can be used to design valid and reliable financial inclusion measuring instruments. It is often the case that important measurement dimensions are excluded from financial inclusion surveys. This could be due to an oversight on the part of the research team, lack of

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

The Data Analytics and Digital Financial Services Handbook

The IFC handbook explains the potential that data and analytics present for financial inclusion and for FSP operations. This is the third handbook on digital financial services (DFS) produced and published by the Partnership for Financial Inclusion, a joint initiative of IFC and The MasterCard Foundation to expand microfinance and advance DFS in SubSaharan Africa.

Read More »
Avoiding the copy-paste approach to mobile money operations
Digital Transformation & Data

Avoiding the copy-paste approach to mobile money operations

Barney de Jongh, of Digital Frontiers Institute, talks to us about leveraging the value of agents and data and driving meaningful usage of mobile money products. When a new entrant is scoping the market, where does the best intelligence usually come from and which data sources or types of data are

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

Data Portal

The Data Portal, first launched under the insight2impact programme, is now hosted by FinMark Trust. Compare indicators across countries and periods. Start by gaining a broad overview of the financial market through National Surveys, (which are nationally representative surveys of adults in a particular country) demonstrate how people source their income

Read More »
innovation and job creation
Digital Transformation & Data

Branch case study: Exploring the potential of alternative data for creating new markets

Exploring the potential of alternative data for creating new markets. Financial service providers are increasingly adopting alternative data to understand and viably serve new segments of the market. Two main trends give rise to this: There is an increase in the amount of alternative data available, and analytical capabilities are improving to more accurately predict future financial behaviour, based

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

Financial sector innovation can thrive in the absence of data

insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously We posed some data-related questions to Marc van der Zon, Head of Central Analytics at Hollard Insurance Company. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only roundtable discussion

Read More »
payment platform
Digital Transformation & Data

In Africa, data often lives on paper

insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously. We interviewed Morné van der Westhuizen and Alex Shabala to understand the role of data in decision-making at Zoona, an African mobile payments operator. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only

Read More »
Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia
Digital Transformation & Data

Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia

Digital financial inclusion holds great promise. Last year, a McKinsey report found that digital finance could add up to $3.7 trillion to the GDP of emerging economies within a decade. A recent blog from the World Bank explains that the biggest impact from financial inclusion comes from digital payments and savings accounts. Studies

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

Data can provide confidence to approach underserved markets

Ekow Duker, Managing Director of Ixio Analytics, shares his views on the way in which financial service providers approach and use data. Ekow was the moderator of the insight2impact roundtable discussion, which we hosted as part of the Chief Data & Analytics Officer Africa event in July 2017. During the insight2impact roundtable

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

The joy of mobile survey design

I designed a mobile survey today and really enjoyed it. You might be thinking: of course it is satisfying, it is easy. But that really isn’t the case. Mobile surveys, and in this case SMS mobile surveys, require a different approach, and when you’re trained in a more traditional, face-to-face

Digital Transformation & Data

Developing valid and reliable survey scales

The purpose of this note is to describe a process that can be used to design valid and reliable financial inclusion measuring instruments. It is often the case that important measurement dimensions are excluded from financial inclusion surveys. This could be due to an oversight on the part of the research team, lack of

Digital Transformation & Data

The Data Analytics and Digital Financial Services Handbook

The IFC handbook explains the potential that data and analytics present for financial inclusion and for FSP operations. This is the third handbook on digital financial services (DFS) produced and published by the Partnership for Financial Inclusion, a joint initiative of IFC and The MasterCard Foundation to expand microfinance and advance DFS in SubSaharan Africa.

Avoiding the copy-paste approach to mobile money operations
Digital Transformation & Data

Avoiding the copy-paste approach to mobile money operations

Barney de Jongh, of Digital Frontiers Institute, talks to us about leveraging the value of agents and data and driving meaningful usage of mobile money products. When a new entrant is scoping the market, where does the best intelligence usually come from and which data sources or types of data are

Digital Transformation & Data

Data Portal

The Data Portal, first launched under the insight2impact programme, is now hosted by FinMark Trust. Compare indicators across countries and periods. Start by gaining a broad overview of the financial market through National Surveys, (which are nationally representative surveys of adults in a particular country) demonstrate how people source their income

innovation and job creation
Digital Transformation & Data

Branch case study: Exploring the potential of alternative data for creating new markets

Exploring the potential of alternative data for creating new markets. Financial service providers are increasingly adopting alternative data to understand and viably serve new segments of the market. Two main trends give rise to this: There is an increase in the amount of alternative data available, and analytical capabilities are improving to more accurately predict future financial behaviour, based

Digital Transformation & Data

Financial sector innovation can thrive in the absence of data

insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously We posed some data-related questions to Marc van der Zon, Head of Central Analytics at Hollard Insurance Company. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only roundtable discussion

payment platform
Digital Transformation & Data

In Africa, data often lives on paper

insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously. We interviewed Morné van der Westhuizen and Alex Shabala to understand the role of data in decision-making at Zoona, an African mobile payments operator. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only

Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia
Digital Transformation & Data

Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia

Digital financial inclusion holds great promise. Last year, a McKinsey report found that digital finance could add up to $3.7 trillion to the GDP of emerging economies within a decade. A recent blog from the World Bank explains that the biggest impact from financial inclusion comes from digital payments and savings accounts. Studies

Digital Transformation & Data

Data can provide confidence to approach underserved markets

Ekow Duker, Managing Director of Ixio Analytics, shares his views on the way in which financial service providers approach and use data. Ekow was the moderator of the insight2impact roundtable discussion, which we hosted as part of the Chief Data & Analytics Officer Africa event in July 2017. During the insight2impact roundtable