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)
Before joining MSC, Anup worked as an Associate with the Centre for Microfinance in Chennai. He advised various financial institutions, such as Fullerton, Cashpor, and Spandana, to design and implement enterprise financing and value chain lending products. Anup also worked with agricultural finance and livelihood services providers, such as BAIF and BILT, to develop and re-engineer value chains. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Forest Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India. Anup is fluent in English and Hindi.

Posts by Anup Singh

The business case for digital transformation

This video looks at the benefits a financial institution stands to gain from moving their business from brick and mortar to a digital bank.

Implementing digital transformation

This video describes what digital transformation is and gives us steps on how financial institutions should go about implementing it

Equity Bank’s digital transformation

This video looks at a case study of how Equity Bank has over the years transformed from a brick and motor bank to a digital bank and the support that MicroSave has offered through this process.

The existential threat facing traditional financial services

The traditional financial services industry is impacted by a confluence of factors and the emergence of digital credit and Fintechs. Learn more on this from this video.

Fintechs are disrupting traditional financial services markets

Fintechs emerged to fill the void as financial service providers had been unable to meet the evolving needs of customers.

OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL CREDIT

This video gives an overview of the rapid growth in digital credit and focuses on the Kenyan landscape.

Digital enterprise credit: the potential and way forward

This video looks at the potential of digital enterprise lending and how digital technology has the potential to enhance MSME credit.

Digital consumer credit versus microcredit

This video looks at the similarities and the differences between Digital Credit and Micro Credit and there seems to be a startling array of similarities which might warrant us to re-learn the same lessons all over again.