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 five-year RRI programme is a partnership between FSD Africa and Cenfri. Its aim is to improve welfare and boost investment growth in sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this, it works to strengthen the integrity and risk management role of the financial sector and to facilitate remittance flows within and into
This note introduces a tool and approach to assist financial inclusion users in better understanding, interpreting and using their data. Adoption of this tool will enable the entire financial inclusion community to produce better research. This will increase credibility among users, as well as onlookers. Financial inclusion users often have to choose between the
Jonathan Zinman explains why he thinks further research is required in order better understand the drivers of decision-making and the ways in which technology can be used to test behaviourally inspired innovations. According to available research, which factors have proved to be the most powerful influencers of financial decision-making? This is
Jonathan Zinman explains why he thinks further research is required in order better understand the drivers of decision-making and the ways in which technology can be used to test behaviourally inspired innovations. According to available research, which factors have proved to be the most powerful influencers of financial decision-making? This is
insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously. Pieter Vorster, Chief Data Officer for Barclays Africa Group, shares his insights with us. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only roundtable discussion that i2i will be
Astute business executives know that their customers are not the rational decision makers that economic models presume them to be. People often make suboptimal decisions that don’t reflect their needs or best interests. For instance, customers overspend on their credit cards, fail to save enough for retirement or don’t take up insurance products to mitigate future risks. Designing financial products and services for this behaviour can be a challenge.
Lito Villanueva, Managing Director and CEO of Philippines digital financial solutions provider, FINTQ, shares his views on collaboration to further the goal of financial inclusion and the company’s new micro deposits offer. FINTQ has been successful in forming partnerships with banks. What lessons have you learnt about creating viable partnerships and
Joseph, a smallholder sugarcane farmer in Swaziland, stopped contributing to his funeral insurance cover – preferring to rely on his neighbours in the event a death in the family occurred. Questioned about this, it became clear that his decision boiled down to trust; “I just don’t trust the insurance business,”
The importance of data for closing the financial inclusion gender gap. The 2014 Global Findex Report identified that in developing economies, women are 9% less likely to be formally banked than men, with 59% of men and 50% of women having bank accounts. The financial inclusion community is actively addressing this gap, but
Prof. Hal Hershfield shares some insights on how trade-offs between the present and a future state affect the financial decisions that people make. i2i has a specific interest in financial decision-making. What are the links between behavioural science and individual behaviour when it comes to the take-up and usage of financial services?
The five-year RRI programme is a partnership between FSD Africa and Cenfri. Its aim is to improve welfare and boost investment growth in sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this, it works to strengthen the integrity and risk management role of the financial sector and to facilitate remittance flows within and into
This note introduces a tool and approach to assist financial inclusion users in better understanding, interpreting and using their data. Adoption of this tool will enable the entire financial inclusion community to produce better research. This will increase credibility among users, as well as onlookers. Financial inclusion users often have to choose between the
Jonathan Zinman explains why he thinks further research is required in order better understand the drivers of decision-making and the ways in which technology can be used to test behaviourally inspired innovations. According to available research, which factors have proved to be the most powerful influencers of financial decision-making? This is
Jonathan Zinman explains why he thinks further research is required in order better understand the drivers of decision-making and the ways in which technology can be used to test behaviourally inspired innovations. According to available research, which factors have proved to be the most powerful influencers of financial decision-making? This is
insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously. Pieter Vorster, Chief Data Officer for Barclays Africa Group, shares his insights with us. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only roundtable discussion that i2i will be
Astute business executives know that their customers are not the rational decision makers that economic models presume them to be. People often make suboptimal decisions that don’t reflect their needs or best interests. For instance, customers overspend on their credit cards, fail to save enough for retirement or don’t take
Lito Villanueva, Managing Director and CEO of Philippines digital financial solutions provider, FINTQ, shares his views on collaboration to further the goal of financial inclusion and the company’s new micro deposits offer. FINTQ has been successful in forming partnerships with banks. What lessons have you learnt about creating viable partnerships and
Joseph, a smallholder sugarcane farmer in Swaziland, stopped contributing to his funeral insurance cover – preferring to rely on his neighbours in the event a death in the family occurred. Questioned about this, it became clear that his decision boiled down to trust; “I just don’t trust the insurance business,”
The importance of data for closing the financial inclusion gender gap. The 2014 Global Findex Report identified that in developing economies, women are 9% less likely to be formally banked than men, with 59% of men and 50% of women having bank accounts. The financial inclusion community is actively addressing this gap, but
Prof. Hal Hershfield shares some insights on how trade-offs between the present and a future state affect the financial decisions that people make. i2i has a specific interest in financial decision-making. What are the links between behavioural science and individual behaviour when it comes to the take-up and usage of financial services?
