Our approach starts with the needs of the consumer in the context of their environment. We assist businesses consider options to build better products, enter new markets, develop innovation strategies and navigate related regulatory constraints.
Services we provide:
Strategic advice and risk analysis (helping to build the business case for inclusive products and services)
Consumer research and customer-centric product design (qualitative and quantitative research, behavioural interventions, and product and service design)
Market, ecosystem and regulatory analysis (to help businesses assess the market potential and navigate the regulatory environment)
Project collaborations
InnoLab engagements span various research areas including insurance, health financing, remittances and new technologies in distribution. For example
We are working with 14 remittance service providers in 7 African countries to improve access to cheaper, faster and safer remittance services through identity proofing and related customer due diligence (CDD) and know-your-customer (KYC) innovations
Cenfri is working with Britam, M-TIBA and the Swiss Capacity Building Facility to scale up accessible mobile health insurance in Kenya
To better understand the financial needs of platform users, we undertook consumer research on behalf of iBuild, which offers a secure method to connect people in Kenya who want to build or renovate with contractors and construction suppliers
To find out more about the InnoLab, please contact mia@cenfri.org.
The Remittance Access Initiative (RAI) is a programme set up through a partnership between IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) and Cenfri. Cenfri is working with a range of remittance service providers (RSPs) to improve access to cheaper, faster, and safer remittance services. This article covers a related innovation that
How to seed connections with customers through SMS and DMs The last two decades have seen extraordinary growth in digital connectivity, particularly due to the growth in mobile technologies. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for example, 93% of the population had mobile cellular subscriptions in 2020, up from 76% in 2015
A demand-side perspective of the risk management and resilience needs of remittance senders from South Africa to Ghana, Malawi and Zimbabwe Remittance-linked insurance products (RLIPs) are insurance products distributed by remittance service providers. These products have great potential to positively impact livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. They cover the risks of
After conducting a systematic review of how behavioural science can be used to drive financial inclusion, our team was inspired to continue our efforts in the field. We provided training on the behavioural design process, assisted companies with consumer research and user experience design and conducted an end-to-end behavioural design
The benefits and challenges of systems practice for engaged ecosystem research At the beginning of this year, Cenfri set out to understand the tech innovation ecosystems in Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos, joined (for the Lagos project) by our partners at the Lagos Business School. As perpetually curious researchers, we are well-versed in gathering large quantities of
We set out to understand the dynamics and factors enabling the three top innovation ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa: Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos. With a growing number of tech start-ups, hubs, accelerators and investors, Lagos has put itself on the map as an important innovation ecosystem in Africa. Through our
At the beginning of this year, we set out to understand what makes innovation ecosystems tick. We wanted to uncover the factors that might turn a city into an engine room for tech innovation and commercialisation, by using a systems mapping approach to make sense of Africa’s top innovation cities:
What enables tech innovation ecosystems to flourish? Innovations of all kinds contribute to greater economic growth, and tech innovations, in particular, can increase digital inclusion for individuals. But this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For an innovation ecosystem to flourish, you need tech-savvy entrepreneurs, access to finance and a balanced
The Africa Fintech Network (AFN) and Cenfri are pleased to announce the signing of their new Memorandum of Understanding. This MoU underlines the shared interest of AFN and Cenfri in developing and strengthening fintech across the continent and describes the practical support that we will give each other. AFN is the continent-wide platform that
Findexable and Cenfri are excited to announce the signing of their new partnership agreement. This partnership is designed to contribute to an increasingly thriving fintech ecosystem in emerging markets, with a particular focus on Africa. The African continent is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing fintech hubs. Its supportive business ecosystems are having an effect: four
The Remittance Access Initiative (RAI) is a programme set up through a partnership between IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) and Cenfri. Cenfri is working with a range of remittance service providers (RSPs) to improve access to cheaper, faster, and safer remittance services. This article covers a related innovation that
How to seed connections with customers through SMS and DMs The last two decades have seen extraordinary growth in digital connectivity, particularly due to the growth in mobile technologies. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for example, 93% of the population had mobile cellular subscriptions in 2020, up from 76% in 2015
A demand-side perspective of the risk management and resilience needs of remittance senders from South Africa to Ghana, Malawi and Zimbabwe Remittance-linked insurance products (RLIPs) are insurance products distributed by remittance service providers. These products have great potential to positively impact livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. They cover the risks of
After conducting a systematic review of how behavioural science can be used to drive financial inclusion, our team was inspired to continue our efforts in the field. We provided training on the behavioural design process, assisted companies with consumer research and user experience design and conducted an end-to-end behavioural design
The benefits and challenges of systems practice for engaged ecosystem research At the beginning of this year, Cenfri set out to understand the tech innovation ecosystems in Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos, joined (for the Lagos project) by our partners at the Lagos Business School. As perpetually curious researchers, we are well-versed in gathering large quantities of
We set out to understand the dynamics and factors enabling the three top innovation ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa: Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos. With a growing number of tech start-ups, hubs, accelerators and investors, Lagos has put itself on the map as an important innovation ecosystem in Africa. Through our
At the beginning of this year, we set out to understand what makes innovation ecosystems tick. We wanted to uncover the factors that might turn a city into an engine room for tech innovation and commercialisation, by using a systems mapping approach to make sense of Africa’s top innovation cities:
What enables tech innovation ecosystems to flourish? Innovations of all kinds contribute to greater economic growth, and tech innovations, in particular, can increase digital inclusion for individuals. But this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For an innovation ecosystem to flourish, you need tech-savvy entrepreneurs, access to finance and a balanced
The Africa Fintech Network (AFN) and Cenfri are pleased to announce the signing of their new Memorandum of Understanding. This MoU underlines the shared interest of AFN and Cenfri in developing and strengthening fintech across the continent and describes the practical support that we will give each other. AFN is the continent-wide platform that
Findexable and Cenfri are excited to announce the signing of their new partnership agreement. This partnership is designed to contribute to an increasingly thriving fintech ecosystem in emerging markets, with a particular focus on Africa. The African continent is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing fintech hubs. Its supportive business ecosystems are having an effect: four
