Now reading: Then and now: Shaping our latest tools in financial inclusion

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

Then and now: Shaping our latest tools in financial inclusion

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series.) “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan In 2010, the leaders of the G20 launched the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) at the G20 Summit in Seoul. It was a watershed moment for financial inclusion, which

Deepening measurement in financial inclusion
Financial Inclusion

Deepening measurement in financial inclusion

You manage what you measure and thus it is important to have a measurement framework that drives the right behaviour. Financial inclusion has strong established measurement frameworks dealing with access to and usage of financial services. (e.g. AFI’s access and usage indicators, FinDex’s formal account ownership indicator and FinScope’s access

Data and Analytics

Financial sector innovation can thrive in the absence of data

insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously We posed some data-related questions to Marc van der Zon, Head of Central Analytics at Hollard Insurance Company. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only roundtable discussion

payment platform
Data and Analytics

In Africa, data often lives on paper

insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously. We interviewed Morné van der Westhuizen and Alex Shabala to understand the role of data in decision-making at Zoona, an African mobile payments operator. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only

Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia
Digital Transformation & Data

Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia

Digital financial inclusion holds great promise. Last year, a McKinsey report found that digital finance could add up to $3.7 trillion to the GDP of emerging economies within a decade. A recent blog from the World Bank explains that the biggest impact from financial inclusion comes from digital payments and savings accounts. Studies

Data and Analytics

Data can provide confidence to approach underserved markets

Ekow Duker, Managing Director of Ixio Analytics, shares his views on the way in which financial service providers approach and use data. Ekow was the moderator of the insight2impact roundtable discussion, which we hosted as part of the Chief Data & Analytics Officer Africa event in July 2017. During the insight2impact roundtable

Financial Inclusion

Labour unions and financial inclusion in South Africa

Labour unions play a critical role in improving the well-being of their members through promoting their rights in the workplace. As an organising entity with bargaining power, access to a typically low-income membership-base, footprint and in some instances, significant financial resources at their disposal, unions are well placed to facilitate

7 innovations in quantitative research
Financial Inclusion

7 innovations in quantitative research: Broadening the financial inclusion survey toolkit

In a previous blog on 10 innovations in qualitative research, I wrote about the importance of using a greater variety of research designs, methods and data collection techniques when conducting financial inclusion research. Similarly, this blog discusses some innovative quantitative methods that could be used when conducting financial inclusion research. It is