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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.

I’ll see you in court!
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

Read More »
Financial Inclusion

Why digital payments are not replacing cash

Globally, the financial inclusion agenda has focused on migrating consumers, providers and governments to digital payment instruments, in a bid to reduce the cost of payments and to allow for the digitisation of other services for which payments are required (e.g. savings, credit and insurance). However, despite the increasing focus

Read More »
Consumer Outcomes

Completing the picture in ASEAN

This blog series seeks to generate a broader discussion on the data that is needed to close the gender gap in financial inclusion in ASEAN. A previous blog post argued that the headline data available on financial inclusion in the ASEAN region – the percentage of women with access to

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

GIS community of practice

The first GIS-focused community of practice knowledge-sharing session on 26 November 2015 focused on ways to promote maximum usage of geospatial data and financial access maps by the private sector. insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by

Read More »
Financial Inclusion

Why bank account access does not translate into usage

Underlying the global financial inclusion agenda is the assumption that providing access to and ownership of bank accounts will improve the lives of previously excluded adults and contribute to economic growth objectives. This assumption is reinforced by surveys such as Findex and FinScope, which monitor the progress of financial inclusion

Read More »
Financial Inclusion

Finance Forward Volume IV Issue I

The Finance Forward series aims to collect and present key findings on recent trends, driving forces, and relevant issues impacting upon the financial sector in Africa. The series intends to help leaders scan the larger, interlocking environments from which trends and themes emerge and interpret the contents based on the context of their own institutions, projects and aims.

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

GIS4FI process note: Zambia

The i2i data quality team supports Zambia’s Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD Zambia) in their efforts to make geospatial data accessible to financial inclusion stakeholders, particularly financial service providers. This process note serves to capture key learnings of the journey to date. Process notes will be updated periodically, with the aim of facilitating learning

Read More »
Digital Transformation & Data

7 Applications for GIS Data

The following is a brief from the insight2impact Data Quality team on their work with financial service providers (FSPs) on pioneering innovations in the application of GIS. It aims to provide a brief snapshot into the possibilities that financial access mapping can unlock. This document forms part of a forthcoming

Read More »
I’ll see you in court!
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

Financial Inclusion

Using consumer insights to unlock the potential of financial inclusion

If we move away from a one-dimensional view of financial inclusion as the percentage of adults with a formal bank account, we find that formal financial services are in fact having a limited impact on people’s lives (or in some cases leaving people worse off). Insights from the MAP Global Insights

Financial Inclusion

Why digital payments are not replacing cash

Globally, the financial inclusion agenda has focused on migrating consumers, providers and governments to digital payment instruments, in a bid to reduce the cost of payments and to allow for the digitisation of other services for which payments are required (e.g. savings, credit and insurance). However, despite the increasing focus

Consumer Outcomes

Completing the picture in ASEAN

This blog series seeks to generate a broader discussion on the data that is needed to close the gender gap in financial inclusion in ASEAN. A previous blog post argued that the headline data available on financial inclusion in the ASEAN region – the percentage of women with access to

Digital Transformation & Data

GIS community of practice

The first GIS-focused community of practice knowledge-sharing session on 26 November 2015 focused on ways to promote maximum usage of geospatial data and financial access maps by the private sector. insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by

Financial Inclusion

Customer views on abuses in the informal funeral parlour market in South Africa

Funeral parlours and burial societies deliver value to consumers by meeting essential functional needs, but also by meeting social and cultural needs. Funeral parlours have a powerful position in the funeral value chain. This exposes consumers to abuse. Such abuses are common and cut across different spheres, such as health

Financial Inclusion

Why bank account access does not translate into usage

Underlying the global financial inclusion agenda is the assumption that providing access to and ownership of bank accounts will improve the lives of previously excluded adults and contribute to economic growth objectives. This assumption is reinforced by surveys such as Findex and FinScope, which monitor the progress of financial inclusion

Financial Inclusion

Finance Forward Volume IV Issue I

The Finance Forward series aims to collect and present key findings on recent trends, driving forces, and relevant issues impacting upon the financial sector in Africa. The series intends to help leaders scan the larger, interlocking environments from which trends and themes emerge and interpret the contents based on the

Digital Transformation & Data

GIS4FI process note: Zambia

The i2i data quality team supports Zambia’s Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD Zambia) in their efforts to make geospatial data accessible to financial inclusion stakeholders, particularly financial service providers. This process note serves to capture key learnings of the journey to date. Process notes will be updated periodically, with the aim of facilitating learning

Digital Transformation & Data

7 Applications for GIS Data

The following is a brief from the insight2impact Data Quality team on their work with financial service providers (FSPs) on pioneering innovations in the application of GIS. It aims to provide a brief snapshot into the possibilities that financial access mapping can unlock. This document forms part of a forthcoming