eC2: Supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria: Access to Finance & Markets Diagnostic

Deadline: 21-Jan-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

The World Bank will employ the services of a specialized firm to conduct a diagnostic which shall help inform the design of interventions to support women-led SMEs (WSMEs) in Nigeria in accessing finance and markets. Specifically, this assignment includes:

i) Mapping: Gather evidence on target beneficiaries (women entrepreneurs with high growth potential) to develop a diagnostic tool and provide the basis for design of tailored capacity building. This will include a creation of a taxonomy for various types of WSMEs, a targeted database of WSMEs and data collection (targeted survey, focus groups, etc.) to help understand WSMEs’ capacity building needs;

ii) Ecosystem Diagnostic: The ecosystem diagnostic will identify and understand the perspective of the various stakeholders affecting the ability of women entrepreneurs to start and grow a business (investors, customer base, competitors, business associations, business development service providers, government agencies, etc.). Focus groups and interviews will help understand the gap, market and institutional, between what is available and what is required for WSMEs to access finance and take advantage of market opportunities;

iii) Market assessment: Mapping of bank and non-bank providers, products, and regulatory barriers, including for Fintech adoption, to inform design of FinTech solutions/movable asset-based lending, and/or savings products tailored to WSMEs’ needs.

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Achieving Financial Inclusion: Fintech, account usage, and innovation

Submitted by H.M. Queen Maxima of The Netherlands on June 14, 2018

For almost a decade, the global community and national governments have made concerted efforts to expand financial inclusion—creating a financial system that works for all and opens the doors to greater stability and equitable progress.

madagascar_0This has been a demanding challenge. At the start of our engagement on financial access back in 2013, we said that having a real target with an end date would keep us focused and give us a benchmark against which we could measure progress.

Last month we learned that we have made strong and consistent progress—a real cause for celebration. According to the Global Findex database, more than half a billion people gained a financial transaction account over the last three years, thanks to a combination of technology, private investment, policy reforms, and support from the global community. Since 2011, the share of adults with formal accounts has risen from 51 percent to 69 percent, and financial access has expanded to include an additional 1.2 billion people.

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eC2: Market Research for Digital Financial Services in Cameroon

Deadline: 04-Jul-2017 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

Under The Partnership for Financial Inclusion, IFC is assisting a mobile networkIFC and the Dutch operator (MNO) in Cameroon to expand their existing customer segment to new clients and markets. IFC is supporting the MNOs plans to implement an expansion and financial inclusion strategy with research to identify opportunities in the market that will help the MNO develop the best products to service its customer base. IFC is looking for a market research firm (Consultants) for this research assignment on mobile money and access to finance in Cameroon. Consultants will be hired to conduct desk research, data collection and analysis on customer needs and preferences for financial services and the extent to which these needs may be met through mobile money. The market research will also involve a competitor analysis, agent profiling, customer segmentation, and product assessment. The goal is to identify and quantify the potential customer base in the Cameroonian market.

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eC2: CGAP Financial Inclusion Data Infrastructure

Deadline: 28-Dec-2016 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) is an independent policy and research center world money smalldedicated to advancing financial inclusion for the world’s poor. It is supported by over 30 development agencies and private foundations who share a common mission to alleviate poverty. Housed at the World Bank, CGAP provides market intelligence, promotes standards, develops innovative solutions and offers advisory services to governments, microfinance providers, donors, and investors.

The high level objectives of this project are:
Improve publically-available data to serve the financial inclusion industry
Empower decision makers (financial service providers, funders/investors, and government officials) to build an inclusive financial services ecosystem through data, analytics, and insight.

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eConsultant2: Leveraging digitized financial education

Deadline: 30-Dec-2015 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is seeking submissionsFinancial Education from a technology platform offering services in order to conduct experimentation leveraging real-time interactions in the following area: driving responsible uptake and usage of specific financial inclusion products and services, including cutting edge digital finance products such as digital credit.

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WB Event – Should We Just Give People Cash?

Date: September 29, 2015

Over the past decade or so, we have witnessed an world money smallimpressive growth in the number, volume, and types of social protection programs in developing countries. This successful growth has been accompanied by a shift in focus from the programs’ traditional role of mitigating risk to changing the earnings trajectory of poor households to promote their escape from poverty. Continue reading

IFC & Dutch firm help Kenyan farming co-operatives get access to financing

Article originally published by Business Daily Africa on August 23, 2015.

A rating agency has come up with a formula that Printranks agriculture-focused co-operative societies and small-scale businesses in a move that will make it easier for them to access loans and social investor funds.

SCOPEInsight, the company supported by the Embassy of Netherlands and partnering with International Finance Corporation (IFC), has developed a rating system that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of co-operative societies. This will prepare them to get financial support. Continue reading

NPR: how cell phone use can help determine a person’s creditworthiness

NPR’s social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam reports how financial institutions in countries where people lack financial records could look into using records on cell phone use to determine the likelyhood of a person paying back their loans. And predicting this with surprising accuracy. Continue reading