Manoj Sharma

Director

Manoj Kumar Sharma is a Director at MSC. He is a development and inclusive finance expert with over 28 years of experience.

Manoj has worked in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lao PDR, Nepal, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Sweden, and Vietnam. Manoj oversees the Institutional Development & Support; Digital Transformation, FinTech-related initiatives, Value Chains Financing & Development; SME; Environment Financing and Capital Advisory Services Practice Groups at MSC. He leads downscaling projects for commercial banks, developing sustainable savings products for small entrepreneurs and clients, and building institutional capacity of MFIs. Manoj played a key role in mainstreaming loan portfolio audits in MFIs as a tool for banks to assess lending and investment decisions. He led the preparation of an organizational development toolkit for financial institutions and a business lending toolkit. He has played a leading role in MSC’s digital financial services domain, supporting strategy development and agent network management for a variety of banks in India, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. His areas of interest include assistance to start-up microfinance institutions, product development, market research, and urban microfinance. Prior to joining MSC, Manoj was an Assistant General Manager at the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). During his time at SIDBI, Manoj was a part of the SME financing team, which negotiated a USD-225-million private sector support assistance package with the World Bank (lead investor), DFID, KfW, and GTZ. Manoj was responsible for managing the fund and a USD-22-million technical assistance to design and implement the program in clusters. He also worked extensively to design and implement programs to promote micro-enterprises and create livelihood opportunities in rural areas. The program was underway in more than 65 locations and has promoted more than 17,500 enterprises. Manoj has a Master’s of Science in Environment degree from Sikkim Manipal University, India. He is fluent in English and Hindi.

Posts by Manoj Sharma

MicroSave’s approach to product development

MicroSave has two decades of experience in Human-centred Design and developed over 200 financial products. Through this journey, we believe that understanding both demand side and supply side is critical.

Offline Payment Acceptance: A Puzzle and an Opportunity

Reserve Bank of India estimates that 96% of all the retail transactions in India are conducted using cash, leaving only about 4% payments on cash-less/digital channels.

Full Report: PMJDY Wave III Assessment

This report captures aspects such as BM’s availability, transaction readiness, dormancy levels, and transactional details. It also focussed on Aadhaar seeding and RuPay card delivery/usage by PMJDY account holders.

G2P Payments in India – How a 1% DBT Commission Could Undermine India’s Financial Inclusion Efforts

This presentation highlight show a 1%DBT Commission Could Undermine India’s Financial Inclusion Efforts

Managing Risks in Digital Financial Services

Watch MSC’s Director, Manoj Sharma, talk about managing risk in Digital Financial space and the issues that concern users in this technology-led financial services.

PMJDY Assessment Round 2: Well Begun is Job Half Done

The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India launched ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on August 28, 2014 with an objective to ensure at least one active bank account per family. MicroSave and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation designed a survey to track the progress of PMJDY with focus on the presence and performance on Bank Mitrs .

DBT Readiness Assessment: Assessing Readiness for Direct Transfers

This presentation highlights the key learning on DBT that was presented during Asia Pacific Financial Inclusion Summit, Manila.

Are the $2 Billion Annual Savings Arising from PAHAL Real?

Are the $2 Billion Annual Savings Arising from PAHAL Real? The blog examines the performance of Pahal, direct benefit transfer for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (DBTL) programme scheme in India.