UNCDF/MICROLEAD RELEASES FIRST DFS TOOLKIT AND CASE STUDY

UNCDF’s MicroLead program team is proud to introduce its series of practical toolkits titled, "How to Succeed in Your Digital Journey: a Series of Toolkits for Financial Service Providers”. The toolkits (available both in French and English) are designed for financial service providers (FSPs) who want to go digital. 

Digital finance via mobile banking and other technologies enables banks and microfinance institutions to reach the “last mile” of unserved populations. For the poor living in remote rural areas, local bank branches and microfinance offices can be hard to find. This, in turn, limits the ability of the rural poor to save for emergencies and investments and access a suitable range of formal financial services. 

But digital finance is turning all that on its head. Today, banks and microfinance institutions throughout the developing world are able to cost-effectively serve rural populations with these new technologies.

However, for FSPs, implementing digital finance comes with its challenges. “Many FSPs realize the importance of utilizing digital financial services (DFS) to reach their customers,” says Pamela Eser, the Global Head of MicroLead. “But they don’t necessarily know where to start.” 

For this reason, sponsored by The MasterCard Foundation, MicroLead is producing a series of six step-by-step toolkits and associated detailed case studies. These toolkits provide a roadmap for financial institutions to successfully implement digital finance. “These toolkits are a practical step-by-step guide to evaluate an FSP’s best choices regarding DFS,” says Ms. Eser. “Each includes an action plan, a budget template, a list of key performance indicators to track, a risk mapping exercise, a self-assessment grid, a case study, and more.”

The six toolkits, developed with support from PHB Development, will be released from November 2016 through March 2017. The goals of this series of toolkits are to (i) help financial institutions identify financially sustainable DFS business lines that fit their needs; (ii) provide practical tools that financial institutions can use in their journey towards digital finance; and (iii) share learnings from the DFS  experiences of MicroLead partners and other financial institutions. You can download the first toolkit, Use Mobile as a Tool, and its associated case study here: https://uncdf.wufoo.com/forms/q4pnwh31pqtp7r/

For more information on the MIcroLead programme, please visit www.uncdf.org/microlead. Follow UNCDF MicroLead at @UNCDFMicroLead.