Article
Digital Inclusion Digital Payments Digital Recordkeeping Digital Transformation Financial Products & Services Financial Service Providers Formal Finance Informal Finance Monitoring & Evaluation User Experience

Reaching Informal Savings Groups with Formal Financial Products: A Study’s Unexpected Findings Reveal the Challenges of Digitizing Transactions

Published by
Raksha Vasudevan
2022
NextBillion
View Resource

This article discusses the main findings from a qualitative assessment of Savings at the Frontier (SatF) projects in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia, implemented in 2015-2022 and funded by the Mastercard Foundation. The program sought to bridge the gap between formal financial services and informal savings groups, enabling members to access the financial services that best meet their needs. The article concludes that despite relatively high uptake and usage of both group and individual bank accounts, digital channels remain slow to develop. It then explores the main reasons for the slow digitization of savings groups and raises several questions that financial service providers and financial inclusion programs may find useful to consider.

Leave a Reply

View all comments

Related Resources

Read
Research
digital divide Digital Inclusion Digital Transformation Digitization Benefits
Research
digital divide Digital Inclusion Digital Transformation Digitization Benefits

The Impact of Gender in Digital Solutions for Savings Groups

International Center for Research on Women
2020

The Impact of Gender in Digital Solutions for Savings Groups

This document is one of three research briefs that highlight key insights from a study of digital savings groups (DSGs) conducted in rural Tanzania from August 2019 through February 2020. The research was conducted by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) working with savings groups supported by PCI, a Global Communities Partner, and […]
Read
Research
digital divide Digital Financial Services Digital Inclusion Digital Literacy
Research
digital divide Digital Financial Services Digital Inclusion Digital Literacy

Lessons on Enhancing Women’s Financial Inclusion Using Digital Financial Services

Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI)
2022

Lessons on Enhancing Women’s Financial Inclusion Using Digital Financial Services

This special report, by AFI’s Digital Financial Services Working Group, examines the role of digital financial services (DFS) in enhancing and sustaining the access, use, and overall quality of financial services for women. The report includes a comprehensive analysis of the current body of knowledge and case studies of countries that have accelerated DFS policy […]