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.
The future of financial health measurement What is financial inclusion contributing in the face of COVID-19 and how do we measure it? The COVID-19 pandemic rages like a bushfire across the world – putting to test the development community’s long-held notion that financial inclusion would protect the poor against the
Financial health is a potentially powerful concept that is attracting interest around the world. Citizens, politicians and policymakers know that effectively managing one’s financial resources – being financially healthy – is central to the success of both individuals and broad populations. If financial health is to be a useful construct,
Financial inclusion is entering a new era The movement’s first era – which we’ll call “Financial Inclusion 1.0” – lasted from 2000 to 2019. During that time, the data tools employed to measure, track and guide financial inclusion efforts were effective in putting the sector firmly on the global development
A synthesis report on what we’ve learned As we set out to understand what our financial inclusion measurement quest would be, it became apparent that it matters what you try to measure. Financial inclusion targets (percentage of adults with a bank account, say) remain valid, but they don’t tell you
Policymakers, development organisations and sometimes even private sector players, often rely on financial inclusion data uncovered through consumer or ‘demand-side’ surveys. However, insight2impact has been exploring the analysis of financial transaction data to generate new insights on people’s financial behaviour. We have partnered with government institutions and commercial banks to
As we reflect on International Women’s Month 2020, we look back on the different things we’ve learned about women’s financial needs, and all the things we are yet to learn! Under the banner #EachForEqual, International Women’s Day 2020 drew attention to the importance of collective individualism – recognising that we
Like a well-plotted mystery, the story of how the novel coronavirus is affecting our world adds a new chapter every day. From today’s vantage point, no one can see how it will turn out. One thing that is clear, however, is that the financial health of many if not most
While half of the world’s population is female, very little is known about their financial inclusion The availability of data on financial inclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. Data initiatives have played a critical role in deepening our understanding of financial inclusion – particularly initiatives such as the World
Why formal institutions aren’t the only ones driving Africa’s innovation and fintech space. There’s been a lot of well-deserved attention on the efforts of businesses, NGOs and other institutions working to reshape Africa’s innovation and fintech ecosystem. Indeed, Insight2Impact has highlighted several of those efforts in the Openi2i series. But there
Have you had a look at insight2impact’s Openi2i series yet? Openi2i is an initiative of Cenfri and Finmark Trust focused on sharing some of the programmatic learnings we’ve discovered from the last five years of jointly implementing the insight2impact programme. For Openi2i, we’ve partnered with NextBillion to document and explore
The future of financial health measurement What is financial inclusion contributing in the face of COVID-19 and how do we measure it? The COVID-19 pandemic rages like a bushfire across the world – putting to test the development community’s long-held notion that financial inclusion would protect the poor against the
Financial health is a potentially powerful concept that is attracting interest around the world. Citizens, politicians and policymakers know that effectively managing one’s financial resources – being financially healthy – is central to the success of both individuals and broad populations. If financial health is to be a useful construct,
Financial inclusion is entering a new era The movement’s first era – which we’ll call “Financial Inclusion 1.0” – lasted from 2000 to 2019. During that time, the data tools employed to measure, track and guide financial inclusion efforts were effective in putting the sector firmly on the global development
A synthesis report on what we’ve learned As we set out to understand what our financial inclusion measurement quest would be, it became apparent that it matters what you try to measure. Financial inclusion targets (percentage of adults with a bank account, say) remain valid, but they don’t tell you
Policymakers, development organisations and sometimes even private sector players, often rely on financial inclusion data uncovered through consumer or ‘demand-side’ surveys. However, insight2impact has been exploring the analysis of financial transaction data to generate new insights on people’s financial behaviour. We have partnered with government institutions and commercial banks to
As we reflect on International Women’s Month 2020, we look back on the different things we’ve learned about women’s financial needs, and all the things we are yet to learn! Under the banner #EachForEqual, International Women’s Day 2020 drew attention to the importance of collective individualism – recognising that we
Like a well-plotted mystery, the story of how the novel coronavirus is affecting our world adds a new chapter every day. From today’s vantage point, no one can see how it will turn out. One thing that is clear, however, is that the financial health of many if not most
While half of the world’s population is female, very little is known about their financial inclusion The availability of data on financial inclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. Data initiatives have played a critical role in deepening our understanding of financial inclusion – particularly initiatives such as the World
Why formal institutions aren’t the only ones driving Africa’s innovation and fintech space. There’s been a lot of well-deserved attention on the efforts of businesses, NGOs and other institutions working to reshape Africa’s innovation and fintech ecosystem. Indeed, Insight2Impact has highlighted several of those efforts in the Openi2i series. But there
Have you had a look at insight2impact’s Openi2i series yet? Openi2i is an initiative of Cenfri and Finmark Trust focused on sharing some of the programmatic learnings we’ve discovered from the last five years of jointly implementing the insight2impact programme. For Openi2i, we’ve partnered with NextBillion to document and explore
