5a. Toolkit Linkages COVER

This toolkit offers practical guidance to financial service providers (FSP) which are already providing or intend to provide formal financial services, including digital financial services (DFS), to savings groups. Insights and lessons offered in this toolkit are based on the experiences of six FSPs, which are UNCDF’s MicroLead partners in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania. The toolkit is organized into five chapters: 1) Introduction; 2) Business opportunities and savings groups’ linkages models; 3) DFSs; 4) Business case parameters and analysis;  and 5) A step-by-step guide for FSPs. The toolkit explores various technological solutions deployed to link FSPs and savings groups; offers the value proposition of using digital technologies to enable savings groups’ linkages; and presents key considerations for services that may be digitized, such as customer onboarding, group transaction records, financial transactions, account information, and consumer empowerment. The toolkit emphasizes that FSPs need to adjust their business models, operational processes, and products and services to become more accessible and convenient to savings groups members, the majority of whom are women and low-income earners living in rural or peri-urban areas. 

FSP directors, managers, and financial officers will find this toolkit helpful. Savings group-facilitating non-governmental organizations, FinTechs, governments, and donors can also benefit from this toolkit to understand the factors that FSP should consider as they build their savings groups’ linkages.

Leave a Reply

View all comments

Related Resources

Read
Tool
digital divide Digital Inclusion Digital Literacy Digital Transformation
Promoting Capabilities
Tool
digital divide Digital Inclusion Digital Literacy Digital Transformation

DSG Toolkit: Promoting Women’s Digital Capabilities

By Lauren Hendricks, Dennis Mello, Paulina (Paula) Rudnicka
Global Communities, Women for Women International
2022

DSG Toolkit: Promoting Women’s Digital Capabilities

Limited digital capability—understood as knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to use digital tools effectively, confidently and safely —is a key barrier to women’s adoption of technology, including digital solutions for savings groups. This tool provides practical tips and suggestions for promoting digital capability among women as part of any digitization project. It is intended for […]
Read
Training
Digital Transformation Digitization Planning Industry Standards Monitoring & Evaluation
DSG Course
Training
Digital Transformation Digitization Planning Industry Standards Monitoring & Evaluation

Digital Savings Group Course

Aga Khan Foundation
2019

Digital Savings Group Course

Developed by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), this online course discusses key concepts in digital savings groups (DSGs) and provides a detailed orientation to AKF’s DSG platform. The course is designed for those who wish to support the implementation of DSGs, including project managers, trainers, and village agents. The course consists of 49 short videos. […]