Now reading: What use is financial inclusion, when you can’t pay the bills?

Financial Inclusion


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:

Making Access to Financial Services Possible or MAP (in partnership with UNCDF and FinMark Trust)
insight2impact or i2i (in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Mastercard Foundation)
Risk, Remittances and Integrity or RRI (with FSD Africa)
Remittance Access Initiative (with IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances)

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.

Financial Inclusion

What use is financial inclusion, when you can’t pay the bills?

The 2017 budget, unveiled by the Minister of Finance Honourable Felix Mutati in Zambia earlier this month incorporates new austerity measures but has incorporated significant increases in social welfare benefits. . However, restricted liquidity conditions in the Zambian economy have significantly impacted access to capital and finance, hindering the expansion

Paid, but not paying off
Financial Inclusion

Paid, but not paying off

Your alarm goes off. It’s 3am on the last Friday of the month. You don’t hesitate to get out of bed. You know you need to get to the local office of the South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA) to get in the queue to get your pension. You’re anxious.

Data and Analytics

Sustainable data collection: Mobile modes

Discover new technologies that enable more sustainable data collection. Sustainable data collection is a central concern for all researchers. Research budgets are under pressure, and response rates using traditional data collection methods are declining. This has put pressure on researchers to critically assess the way in which they design surveys and how they can

Financial Inclusion

Cross-border remittances

The World Bank estimated that in 2016 remittances from migrant workers to developing countries will be worth USD 440 billion. More than twice that of foreign aid. Remittances play a critical role in supporting the welfare of many individuals and households in developing countries. Moreover, remittances can contribute to economic

Financial Inclusion

Understanding account usage through a consumer lens

Over the past five years, the move towards digital financial services and simplified account opening procedures has improved the take-up of accounts by the low-income sector. The 2014 global Findex data highlighted that the number of people without access to formal accounts decreased from 2.5 billion in 2011 to 2

Financial Inclusion

BR Research interviews insight2impact

BR Research recently sat down in Islamabad with a team of researchers from the insight2impact (i2i) facility who were on a visit to Pakistan earlier this month. A data resource centre hosted by South Africa-based think-tank Cenfri and market facilitator FinMark Trust, the i2i facility is sponsored by Bill &

Digital Transformation & Data

Closing gaps, building bridges

Can the location of a platinum mine help financial service providers (FSPs) identify where to locate a bank branch or ATM? What about the locations of bus or taxi ranks? FSPs are increasingly using this type of geospatial (GIS) data to inform their business decisions. Less than a year ago,

Data and Analytics

Spatial Data 2016

Spatial Data for Business Intelligence workshop proceedings. Insight2impact (i2i) in collaboration with Financial Sector Deepening Tanzania (FSDT) hosted the Spatial Data for Business Intelligence workshop on 10-11 November 2016, in Dar es Salaam. The two-day workshop focused on demonstrating the value of spatial data for the financial sector and driving evidence-based decisions

Financial Inclusion

Good intentions

Why what you measure in financial inclusion is so important to the outcomes you achieve Financial inclusion is increasingly recognised as a policy instrument to deliver on policy objectives such as welfare, health outcomes and food security. In fact, it is deemed so important that the recently published United Nations