Last Midi de la Microfinance: Digital Financial Services Need to Be Adapted to the Needs of MFI’s Clients

Last Midi de la Microfinance: Digital Financial Services Need to Be Adapted to the Needs of MFI’s Clients

The 46th Midi de la Microfinance organised on February 7th 2019 discussed the topics that will shape the development of financial inclusion in the coming years, A particular focus was given by the pannelists to digital solutions for financial inclusion.

Indeed digital solutions are often perceived as a tool to strengthen financial inclusion thanks to easier access to the most remote populations, reduced operational costs for microfinance institutions, or simply through the democratization of financial services. As Madji Sock,Founder and President of Women’s Investment Club and partner at Dalberg in Dakar,  pointed out: “Digital technology helps to reduce the gap between men and women or young entrepreneurs”.

Gerhard Coetzee, CGAP Centricity Client Expert, added: “Between 2006 and 2017, nearly two billion accounts were opened worldwide, but more than half of them are not used. It is therefore important to know why these clients have abandoned them. Is there any real added value behind this? The same is true for digital, the customer’s needs must be put forward in the development of technical solutions”.

Arnaud de Lavalette, ADA Senior Project Manager in Digital Finance,  underlined that as part of the ” ADA Digital finance initiative” in African countries, microfinance institutions are in fact turning to digital innovations following the request of their clients. Most technological products are therefore implemented first with the idea of bringing real added value to the customer.

Finally, the issue of public-private partnerships was raised for the advancement of the sector: “The trend of profitability before social development should be avoided. For this reason, it is important that projects are carried out by NGOs,” says Madji Sock.The conclusion of the discussion was presented by Sachin S Vankalas, Director of Operations and Sustainable Development, LuxFLAG Luxembourg who highlighted the need for capacity building for microfinance actors in Africa to access more investors and thereby improve their products and services, including digital. He concluded with an important note: “In addition, the benefits of digital innovations that improve and facilitate the work of financial institutions in the South must also be visible to the customer, for example by reducing interest rates on products offered”.

This Midi was moderated by Myka Reinsch, Inclusive Finance Consultant (France).

For more information and to watch online this 46th Midi de la Microfinance click here

Source: ADA

Pictures: Olivier Minaire