Akhand Tiwari

Partner

Akhand Jyoti Tiwari is a Partner at MSC and leads BFSI work. Akhand brings multiple years of experience in development consulting.

He works closely with policymakers, practitioners, academics, and investment & donor agencies. Akhand's recent work includes strengthening policies and practice on financial inclusion, and unpacking barriers to gender equality to promote women's economic empowerment. Akhand also actively guides MSC's work on unpacking behaviour of low and middle income segments; and using design thinking to solve strategic and tactical challenges of MSC's clients.

Posts by Akhand Tiwari

Account inactivity in India—is there a problem?

MSC dispels some myths on the issue of high account dormancy in India compared to other countries.

Women business diaries: Unpacking a 360-degree view of women-run businesses in Bangladesh

This blog introduces the Women Business Diaries research in Bangladesh and explains how this research will unpack a 360-degree view of women business owners.

The role of mobile money providers and their agents in protecting customers’ data

This Slide Deck is a supplement to the Blog “How Are Mobile Money Agents Protecting Customers’ Data in Uganda?” (December 2022).

Lending to cash-in cash-out (CICO) agents: An untapped frontier in micro-enterprise lending

Lending to cash-in cash-out (CICO) agents in developing countries remains a vastly underserved market despite its investment potential. This report focuses on the agent lending landscape in nine diverse low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries that represent mature and evolving markets to provide insights into the larger global opportunity.

Are you designing a behavior change communication message to encourage the use of agent banking among the LMI women in rural areas? Here is what you need to know.

Behavioral messaging can nudge difficult-to-penetrate segments. However, designing a clear, simple, and powerful ATL communication for the LMI segment is difficult. This blog charts the design journey of one such initiative in India.

“Yes I get it. Small deposits do make sense.”: Lessons from a pilot with Airtel Payments Bank on client communication

Airtel Payments Bank had tailored its Bharosa account to suit the small savings needs of its rural clients. However, its agents could not get the required footfall at their outlets due to low client awareness levels. This deck covers a client communication concept we tested to increase product awareness of APB clients.

Testing a behavioral design approach to deliver product information at agent outlets

Low- and moderate-income (LMI) Indians have limited customer awareness and behavioral biases, which affect how well they take to government-backed insurance products at agent outlets. This blog discusses an innovative experiment conducted by MSC and FIA Global on a communication toolbox for business correspondent agents.

India’s blanket approach to financial inclusion is leaving women behind: Here are four ways to close the gender gap

India has been at the forefront of digital innovations in financial services, helping millions participate in the financial economy through their mobile phones. However, this progress and innovation are meaningless for the millions of Indian women who remain excluded from basic banking in the first place. The strategies we have discussed in this blog directly impact women’s financial inclusion.