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Anup Singh
Associate Director
Anup Singh leads MSC’s regional office in Anglophone Africa and heads the Helix Institute based in Nairobi, Kenya. With 16 years of experience, his expertise includes the digital transformation of financial institutions, digital readiness assessment of social protection programs, digital credit scoping, design and policy, training programs, and FinTech mapping, scoping, and policy design.
Anup has advised more than 150 institutions, including governments, FinTechs, financial institutions, investors, and multilateral organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and South Africa in the African continent, and India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Myanmar, China, Papua New Guinea in the Asian continent. He has also trained at the Boulder Institute of Microfinance, Italy, in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021.
A few examples of his recent work are as follows:
- Quality and usage of digital financial services by open-air market and cross-border women traders in Kenya for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2021-23)
- Assessment of best practices in digital credit by micro-entrepreneurs for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2022)
- Landscaping of agent lending and recruitment practices for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2022)
- Development of East Africa strategy 2022-30 for the Financial Services for the Poor (FSP), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2021-22)
- Assessment of agent network management in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mozambique for GSMA. (2021-22)
- Research on personal financial investment and wealth management for FSDU in Uganda. (2021)
- Technical assistance to the Financial Technology and Service Providers Association (FITSPA) members to comply with the NPS Act and regulations for FSDU in Uganda. (2021)
- Strategy and digital transformation plan for SMFI-Shabelle Bank funded by Mercycorps in Ethiopia. (2021)
- Conducted an assessment of additionality and customer protection risk of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) for CDC. (2021)
- Development of Awash Bank’s digital financial services strategy and implementation plan funded by Awash Bank in Ethiopia. (2020-22)
- Development of an Integrated Farmer Services platform investment for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Rwanda. (2020)
- Strategy development for the CRDB Foundation to focus on corporate social responsibility activities for CRDB Group in Tanzania. (2020)
- The feasibility of building an interoperable state-wide digital payment infrastructure funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Kaduna state, Nigeria. (2020)
- Formulation of the proof of concept for Responsible Digital Transformation Lab (ReDiLab) funded by AFD across the globe. (2020)
- Feasibility study for the transformation of BRAC Liberia and BRAC Sierra Leone to deposit-taking institutions funded by BIHBV. (2020)
- Design thinking to refine personal retirement programs for the mass market funded by ICEA LION in Liberia and Sierra Leone. (2020)
- Development of customer journeys and wireframes for the product roadmap of the Rwanda National Digital Payments Strategy, funded by Access to Finance Rwanda: Led the team that built the user journey and interface for the Rwanda National Digital Payments Strategy. (2019-20)
Posts by Anup Singh
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.
Nov 1, 2022
Akhand Tiwari, Anup Singh, Raunak Kapoor, Edward Obiko, Gregory Emeka Ilukwe, Manoj Nayak and Zeeshan Ali
Nov 1, 2022
Akhand Tiwari, Anup Singh, Raunak Kapoor, Edward Obiko, Gregory Emeka Ilukwe, Manoj Nayak and Zeeshan Ali
Customer-centric and responsible digital credit solutions for urban and rural non-farm entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers
MSC conducted a deep-dive analysis of the digital credit users in India, Indonesia, and Kenya to assess the impact of digital credit on their financial health. The analysis presents the insights from the assessment and recommends actionable interventions at the level of providers, regulators, and policymakers to enhance the financial health of digital credit users.
Sep 20, 2022
The Revolution MUST be Digitalized
It is clear that digital transformation is a journey, not a destination – so incremental progress is to be expected. Equity Bank, one of the leading microfinance providers in Kenya, developed a well-articulated approach and took over a decade to digitalize its operations. It started with the equivalent of a digital readiness assessment, on which it based its digital transformation strategy in 2010. MSC worked alongside Equity Bank, providing consulting services, for much of its digital transformation journey.
Jun 7, 2022
Can we turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity to enable indigenous capabilities?
At MSC, we believe that the COVID-19 pandemic gives us the opportunity and impetus to turn the crisis into an opportunity by developing indigenous capabilities instead of flying in international consultants. After all, local experts may have more to offer than meets the eye.
May 20, 2021
Can digital approaches enable better access to formal financial services to MSMEs?
Financial institutions have a clear opportunity to enhance access to formal financial services for MSMEs. Let us examine from this blog whether digital approaches can give the needed access to MSMEs.
Apr 22, 2021
How can financial institutions use digital transformation to help MSMEs recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?
This blog focus on how financial institutions can use digital transformation to help MSMEs recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apr 21, 2021
Digitizing the operations of MSMEs: A big step to strengthen their resilience
About 17% of businesses surveyed by MSC in India, Indonesia, Kenya, and the Philippines have closed due to local restrictions and low demand for goods and services. Meanwhile, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the informal sector fared worse. Digitization brings ample opportunities to MSMEs. More from this blog.
Apr 20, 2021
Many MSMEs are dying—can we realize the full potential of the digital revolution to save them?
This blog analyzes the existential crisis that is being faced by MSMEs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and goes further to explore whether exploring the full potential of the digital revolution can save them.
Apr 19, 2021