Watch this video from the Wall Street Journal developed by CGAP, the World Bank’s financial inclusion unit which provides a short summary of the link between the growth in data generated by mobile phones and financial inclusion. It was shared with us by our Chomoka (Digital VSLA) team. The video raises the benefits and risks associated with this trend.
As the leading promoter of savings groups in Africa, CARE has established and willing users, more brand recognition and more understanding of the barriers these groups face than anyone else. We believe have a better shot than anyone else at getting a large number of people to use the solution, which is key to success. By being the provider of the solution that generates data on group trends and behavior, we also effectively can serve as a layer between that information and the growing range of financial service providers looking to bank groups and group members. By creating a marketplace- rather than tying our platform to a single financial service provider- we can promote competition and only market financial products to users that are designed with consumer protection and consumer prosperity in mind from the outset. We’re excited to see what happens in the future with digitizing savings groups!