Digital Transformation & Data
Deploying data to understand clients better
MasterCard Foundation Symposium.
15 August, 2016
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.
Digital Transformation & Data
GIS4FI i2i Communities of Practice #2
The second gis4FI community of practice knowledge-sharing. In the previous call, community of practice members focused on ways to promote maximum usage of geospatial data and financial access maps by the private sector. The focus of this second session on 4 February 2016 was on gis4FI country processes and the role of members in
24 July, 2016
Consumer Outcomes
Equal access in ASEAN – illusion or reality?
This blog series stimulates a broader discussion on gendered financial inclusion in ASEAN. We examine why women’s access to financial services does not necessarily equate gendered usage. We further explore whether the value that women derive from financial services is impacted by the provider they access them from. It is
22 July, 2016
Digital Transformation & Data
It’s not you, it’s me
In recent decades, the number of global airline passengers has increased by nearly 400%, resulting in a rapid expansion in airline operators as well as air travel routes. Born from the need for a one-stop shop for consumers to explore the best available routes and most cost-effective options, a number
10 July, 2016
Digital Transformation & Data
The many face survey
Traditionally, survey data was collected by fieldworkers trekking across the country, knocking on doors and filling in paper questionnaires. As it sounds, it is possibly the slowest way of collecting data. However, recent advances in technology and data collection methodologies are changing this. More and more organisations are collecting data
7 July, 2016
Financial Inclusion
Impact: If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far…
They say that “if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” This is how I feel about achieving an impact. I learnt this the hard way, having run five marathons in my lifetime while devoting a decade and a half of
6 July, 2016
Digital Transformation & Data
Alternative data ‘lends’ a hand
Worried about how to improve your credit score? At least you have one. The harsh reality is that credit bureaus do not have data on the vast majority of the world’s population. According to the World Bank, credit bureaus cover less than a third (30%) of the adult population in
6 July, 2016
Financial Inclusion
This road will not get you there
This week I drove 600km from Cape Town airport to my home and sheep farm in the rural Karoo. Whereas the drive was pleasant and gave me time to reflect on many things, the joy of driving was definitely not the purpose of this journey. Getting home to my family
6 July, 2016
Financial Inclusion
Facilitating market development to advance financial inclusion
CGAP’s focus note, Facilitating Market Development to Advance Financial Inclusion, presents FinMark Trust as a “facilitator” for financial market development in South Africa. A facilitator is an informed, trusted, independent and locally based interlocutor responsible for making sure that the needs of all parties in the financial system are met. What
5 July, 2016
Financial Inclusion
I’ll see you in court!
See you in court? Unlikely. In recent times most law courts in Africa have not been suitable places to enforce or defend low-value retail credit contracts – the transactions costs associated with the legal process swamp the value of most claims. A lender usually only goes to court in order
26 June, 2016
