Idepro believes that providing working capital loans to small-scale producers will enable them to invest…
Microfinance
Digitalization of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) in Uganda
Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) are savings groups that are self-managed by the members.…
Digital Survey Benchmarks on Digitalisation
Since the inception of microcredit in the 1970s, its business model has seen a number…
Encouraging Effective and Inclusive Savings: Lessons and Best Practices from the European Microfinance Award 2020
2020 was a unique year with so many challenges for everyone within the financial inclusion…
A COVID Microfinance Liquidity Tour of Asia
This synthesis document brings together selected aspects of the COVID-19 Microfinance Liquidity Tour of Asia…
Debt Restructuring in Microfinance
In July 2020, nearly 300 participants from 30 countries joined CGAP workshops to discuss how…
The Hidden Pitfalls of Digitalisation
This chapter of BIO’s digital survey looks at risks digital innovation could pose for financial…
Who are the Innovators, MFIs or Commercial Banks?
This chapter of BIO’s digital survey looks at digital products and services in relation to…
An Imperitive Need for a New Social Order in Microfinance Community – Towards Ushering in a Resilient Ecosystem in the Battle Against Corona Pandemic
The paper presented by Research Gate tries to understand the challenges that the Microfinance industry…
Digital Initiatives by Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women: A Lesson for Progressive MFIs in Bangladesh
MicroSave Consulting has issued two case studies concerning Shakti Foundation’s digital initiatives for women. The…
A Case Study in Interoperable Payments in Myanmar’s Microfinance Industry Part 1, 2 & 3
Modusbox collaborated with UNCDF Myanmar on a six-month-long interoperability project in Myanmar’s microfinance industry to demonstrate the…
Measuring Microfinance Impact: A Practitioner Perspective and Working Methodology
This paper results from a research project by the EIF on “Measuring Microfinance Impact in…
General Information on Client Protection Law and Regulation
This list is the result of desk research on law and regulation regarding client protection…
A Tale of Two Sisters: Microfinance Institutions and PAYGo Solar
The microfinance institutions of the future will not know every client personally. They will acquire…
State of practice: Savings groups and the role of government in sub-Saharan Africa
In recent years, governments across sub-Saharan Africa have deepened their engagement with savings groups, recognising…
Making digital credit truly responsible- Insights from analysis of digital credit in Kenya
Digital credit is instant, automated, and remote, providing borrowers with quick access to short-term loans.…
How digitized supply chain finance can help small merchants grow
This guide has been developed by Accion for institutions interested in developing a supply chain…
Microfinance Institutions: Prospects for B2B FinTechs?
This well researched blog post by Mondato summaries the evolution and future for microfinance and the challenges…
LISTEN NOW: Update on DFS Landscape in Jordan and Bangladesh
Chaired by DFI’s CEO, Gavin Krugel, this webinar visits two countries featured in DFI courses,…
The supply chain finance opportunity
Supply chain finance (SCF) offers high-quality, low-risk financing to the small merchants that tend to…
Promoting Responsible Finance and Sustainability in Azerbaijan: Lessons for Emerging Microfinance Associations
This learning brief looks at lessons learnt from the microfinance sector in Azerbaijan, sharing approaches and ideas…
A Digital Credit Revolution Insights from Borrowers in Kenya and Tanzania
Digital credit has expanded rapidly in both Kenya and Tanzania, yet there is limited evidence…
Customer-Centric Guide
The CGAP Customer-Centric guide explores retention, acquisition, and expansion of product use by customers, making recommendations on…
Digital Transformation of Microfinance and Digitization of Microfinance Services to Deepen Financial Inclusion in Africa
Through a review of the literature and interview of key individuals in the space, this…
Building the Business Case for Housing Microfinance
Financial service providers are discovering that vast business opportunities exist within the lower-income housing markets of the…
Turning MFI Digital Strategies into Reality
Digital financial services can offer microfinance institutions (MFIs) the benefit of scaling up and extending…
Rural Finance: Recent Advances and Emerging Lessons, Debates and Opportunities
Rural finance remains very challenging and in developing countries it is generally weak, despite the…
Tiny Loans Big Questions: Client Protection in Mobile Consumer Credit
Very small instant consumer loans have ballooned from 11 deployments in 2011, to 52 in…
Valuing Microfinance Institutions
While the valuation of microfinance institutions (MFIs) may be more of an art than a…
A Guide to Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance
Most policy makers, donors, and private investors involved in microfinance now appreciate that poor and…
Enhancing Customer Engagement and Experience of Microinsurance in Africa
This presentation from CGAP explores using human centered design techniques to figure out how to…
Health and Microfinance: Leveraging the Strengths of Two Sectors to Alleviate Poverty
Freedom from Hunger and five microfinance institutions (MFIs) from Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, India, and…
Are Banks and Microfinance Institutions Natural Partners in Financial Inclusion?
In India, the business case of the BC model is yet unclear. The main limiting…
Exploring Business Pathways to Digital Financial Inclusion: Early Indications from a Field Visit to Ghana and Tanzania
This report by David Porteous and Ignacio Mas contains an initial evaluation of the opportunities…
Banking the Poor Through Everyday Stores
This paper by Ignacio Mas reviews the opportunities and strategic choices facing banks considering branchless…
Banking Through Networks of Retail Agents
Technology can enable banks and their customers to interact remotely in a trusted way through…
The Role of Mobile Operators in Expanding Access to Finance
Mobile phones may have a huge role to play in expanding access to finance. But…
The Utility of Retail Payments in Addressing the Financial Inclusion Gap in Developing Countries
This paper by Ignacio Mas outlines the role of mobile phones in addressing the financial…
Realizing the Potential of Branchless Banking: Challenges Ahead
This paper from Ignacio Mas further develops a broad vision for financial inclusion sketched out…
The Economics of Branchless Banking
This paper by Ignacio Mas provides a formal analysis of the economic drivers for branchless…
Bridges to Cash: The Retail End of M-PESA
M-PESA is a remarkably successful mobile payments system launched in Kenya three years ago. Users…
Savings for the Poor: Banking on Mobile Phones
The paper by Ignacio Mas reviews the relevance of formal financial services – and in…
Beyond Products: Building Integrated Customer Experiences on Mobile Phones
With today’s mobile money platforms, the value proposition for keeping money digital and driving up…
Banking on Mobiles: Why, How, For Whom
This paper by Ignacio Mas examines how banks can translate the potential of mobile phones…
The Early Experience with Branchless Banking
Branchless banking has great potential to extend the distribution of financial services to poor people…
Money Resolutions, Digital Simulations
This paper explores how the broad financial decision-making practices commonly employed by poor people (as…
Money Resolutions, a Sketchbook
The purpose of this paper is to identify those broad behaviors and mental ideas that…
Fertile Grounds for Mobile Money: Towards a Framework for Analyzing Enabling Environments
The potential of mobile phones to revolutionize access to financial services in developing countries is…
The Next Digital Finance Frontier: Filling the Accounts
It is commonly accepted that poor people find value in remote digital payments propositions. A…
The Microfinance Industry Needs an Infrastructure Fix: Summary of Findings and Recommendations
“Nearly every industry requires infrastructure to thrive, and this goes for the microfinance industry too.…
Microfinance: Access Africa – Closing the Gap
This review focuses on the potential for the savings-led microfinance (MF) movement in sub-Saharan Africa…