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Survival tips for start-ups—taking a leaf out of Bear Grylls’ book

Posted on by MSC

In his series titled “Man vs. Wild”, globe-trotting adventurer and wildlife enthusiast Bear Grylls demonstrates unusual techniques of survival while stranded in tough environments. These environments are either wholly unfamiliar for people or different from the ones they operate in. People are usually unprepared to handle the challenges posed by such hostile environments. Bear Grylls provides survival tips that come in handy to tide over such unplanned scenarios.

COVID-19 has pushed the start-up world into a similar type of chaos. Start-ups at different stages of their lifecycle are facing the heat. The magnitude of this extraordinary event has brought into question the very survival of these businesses and their strategies. This event is one of its kind in the past 100 years or more and has caught the start-up world off-guard. COVID-19 has bought the world down to its knees with almost simultaneous impact across multiple countries in the form of unprecedented lockdowns imposed by governments, numerous fatalities, disrupted businesses, and job losses. The fact that global economies are no longer disconnected has added to the strain.

Also sadly, to battle this chaos, start-ups have no precedence to follow and no book they can refer to. All they have are some words of wisdom from experts that further add to the commotion. For the start-up world, these challenging times can have a massive impact on their businesses and ultimately, their survival. Let us draw some parallels from Bear Grylls’ advice on survival in tough conditions.

Man vs. Wild Bear Grylls

Bear Grylls on the summit of Mt. Everest in 1998, aged 23. The youngest Brit at the time to climb the summit. (Courtesy: Bear Grylls Ventures)

  1. Preserve your supplies: Preserve cash and push the run-way further

In times of crisis, Bear makes the most of his limited supplies and preserves them for the unforeseen future. In this time where start-ups do not know when the tide will recede, they should take note of the following pointers:

  • Preserve cash; liquidity will be at a premium in the short to medium term;
  • Put any extravagant expenses like moving into a new office on hold;
  • Go slow on hiring and recruit employees who can multi-task—a finance person, for example, who understands marketing;
  • Push the run-way to at least 2x times (3 months to 6 months, from 6 to 12 months, and so on);
  • Re-negotiate your contracts with suppliers and vendors because your customers are bound to re-negotiate with you!
  • Tread cautiously on cash-backs and points-based rewards, among others;
  • Drop the idea of launching products that need substantial research and incur high costs of development. Go for products that need only incremental spends, instead;
  • Go with the adage “equity for capex, debt for opex and working capital.” However, for smaller start-ups, equity may be the only option. Besides, many start-ups lack clear rules around equity or debt, since money is anyways fungible;
  • Do not stock up on inventory as this locks up capital. Re-orient processes to reduce the working capital gap;
  • Build strategies based on the analysis of risk-based scenarios.
  1. Any water is better than no water: Look for funding from any source—institutional or individual

You would have seen Bear looking for all possible sources of potable water, which is a life-saving element in times of distress. Similarly, start-ups need to keep an eye out for any possible source of funding. It is common knowledge that funding sources will dry up, at least in the short term, since most investors are worried about their portfolios and will prefer to wait and watch. Moreover, first loss default guarantees (FLDGs) from banks or NBFCs would be nearing the 100% mark, which would make lives tough for lending start-ups. Here are some ways to keep hydrated:

  • Look for impact investors;
  • Try to secure small amounts from multiple sources;
  • Explore crowdfunding opportunities—mainly for social sector start-ups;
  • Look for individual investors – including family and friends (but be aware of the social implications of this route which may include reduced control, nepotism, buy from specific suppliers, and if all goes wrong, lose of face and friendship)
  • Be willing to pay a higher FLDG to keep the start-up running and re-negotiate as soon as things start to look better.
  1. Beware of snares: Beware of new partners and relationships—everyone wants to make a quick buck

Bear is extremely cautious of the snares and traps laid out for wild animals by hunters in the wild. Even a slight oversight can cause irreparable damage. In these times of trial, start-ups may be lured into partnerships that may harm their business interests in the long run. Hence, they should resist moves that are “penny-wise and pound-foolish.” Here are some quick tips to avoid these snares:

  • Conduct adequate due diligence of any new partner or vendor;
  • Conduct adequate due diligence before diluting equity and read all covenants carefully;
  • Negotiate hard and ensure that you get what you are looking for. This mainly applies to CAPEX-type investments;
  • Be careful while onboarding new equity partners—diluting equity at the cost of the vision statement may not be a great bargain;
  • Be careful when negotiating for FLDGs with smaller NBFCs. You run the risk of getting a smaller return while taking higher risks.
  1. Depend on your tools: Lean on your core employees—they are your precious resources

Bear depends heavily on his survival kit that includes everything from pliers and a flashlight to knives and ropes. Keeping these tools in order is important to survive in the wild. How many start-ups think of employees as their trusted resources / tools? In times such as these, it is necessary to retain valuable employees. As they say- Cut fat (discretionary spend) and preserve muscle (retain core employees). Some tips here:

  • Communicate with employees about the hardships and the path ahead. Inform them about all major decisions to gain their confidence;
  • Always speak of the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel.” This is essential because many employees fail to maintain positivity, which affects their performance, drive, and commitment at work;
  • Show empathy towards employees, which will go a long way in cementing relationships;
  • Demonstrate responsible leadership with lenders, customers, and investors. This will enhance your reputation with the staff;
  • Provide opportunities for online training and certifications, among others, if the time and resources permit;
  • Delegate responsibilities—ask the employees to fight smaller battles in line with their capacities and laud every victory;
  • Motivate, support, and empower your team.
  1. Be agile: Keep your ears to the ground

At its core, agility is decision-making on the go. Bear, too, demonstrates that agility in non-native environments pays off. Watching your back helps ward-off unexpected attacks. The principles of agility (OODA) for start-ups become all the more important during these uncertain times.

The principle of agility for start-ups

Source: The Essence of Winning and Losing, John R. Boyd

Experts suggest that start-ups must remain agile around the clock. Agile development is a part of lean management prescribed for all start-ups. In these tough times, start-ups can benefit from some of the points mentioned below:

  • Look for cues / information in social media;
  • Look for changes in guidelines, regulations, and policies;
  • Look for changes in taxation sops and dates to file taxes;
  • Connect with your customers quite often—try to understand their pain points and consider tweaking your offerings;
  • Observe the direction in which the markets move and take note of any changes in the financial position of your country;
  • Keep an eye on what other start-ups are doing—observe how they cut costs, raise funds, and maintain a connect with their customers.
  1. Exercise and meditate: Take care of your health

In the wild, Bear Grylls is quick, coordinated, and powerful. This is only possible through his regime of a healthy diet and rigorous exercise. However, this is generally the last thing recommended to start-ups. The journey of a start-up is demanding and the burn-out rates quite high. In testing times as these, this rate of burning out is even quicker and sometimes irreversible. The pressure to keep the start-up ticking while providing answers to both internal and external stakeholders may result in extreme levels of stress. To maintain their wellbeing, start-up promoters need to take care of themselves and allocate some time for routine exercises and meditation.

As goes the saying “it is not a sprint, it is a marathon”. In regular circumstances, building your company is both a sprint and a marathon. COVID-19 has re-set the very tracks of these sprints and marathons!

Downturns and challenges will keep testing the mettle of start-ups. However, COVID-19 is of a different magnitude and has been right defined as a black swan event and finding a perfect solution to manage its consequences will likey be a work-in-progress for quite some time.

Having said that, some start-ups are determined to turn this crisis into an opportunity. Like Bear, who has crafted rafts and used violent river currents to accelerate his journeys, some of MSC’s start-up partners are using this situation to their advantage by offering insurance products that secure their customers against COVID-19. Some others plan to make their transactions / processes completely digital to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Let us not forget that some of the greatest start-ups that rule today, such as Uber, Airbnb, Square, and WhatsApp, among others, were born either during or soon after the global economic crisis of 2008.

MSC (MicroSave Consulting) is working on a multi-country start-up research to understand the likely impact of COVID-19 on start-ups. In our upcoming blogs, we will come up with the pain points of start-ups and their end-customers. We will also elaborate on the short-term and long-term strategies that the start-ups should follow. Watch this space for more adventures!

An abridged version of the blog was published on CIO East Africa on 11th of April, 2020

The blog was also published on Start Up Magazine, Soko Directory and Business Today

Digital ROSCA—the new kid on the block

Posted on by MSC

Ravi is a 32-year-old deliveryman who works for Zomato—a FoodTech unicorn in India. He receives his earnings on a weekly basis. Despite the long list of monthly expenses, Ravi delays the payment for his rent, groceries, and bike fuel and maintenance to the second, third, and fourth weeks of the month, respectively. He ensures that the money he takes home during the first week goes to a Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA), also known as “committees” or “Beesi” in India.

ROSCAs: A primer

ROSCAs are financial instruments in which the members participate voluntarily. These members usually comprise a trusted social network that includes the family, relatives, friends, neighbours, and colleagues. The members commit to making equal and regular contributions to a fund, typically on monthly or weekly cycles. A different member picks up the lump sum at the end of each cycle.

ROSCAs are prevalent all over the world and are known by different monikers in different geographies. They have given rise to various innovations pursued by donor agencies in the saving groups, from Accumulated Savings and Credit Associations (ASCA) to Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) to Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) to Self Help Groups (SHGs).

Millions of low-income people across the world use ROSCAs as instruments of savings and credit. Since these people are susceptible to income volatility, ROSCAs give them the unique option to pursue a savings goal, as well as an opportunity to build social capital and creditworthiness. ROSCAs are not only popular with individuals but also with small businesses worldwide that participate in them to manage their need for working capital. Today, ROSCAs amount to more than USD 500 billion in value raised worldwide.

Despite the introduction of formal financial products among low-income people, ROSCAs remain the most popular savings mechanism. Ravi, too, implicitly trusts the ROSCA and considers it the instrument of “first choice” for his financial planning. For Ravi, all other formal financial products that he uses are mere add-ons, such as bank accounts, fixed deposits, and an endowment policy of the Life Insurance of India (LIC). Formal financial products have proven unable to match the flexibility, convenience, and trust embedded in ROSCAs. No wonder Ravi has opted to save through his ROSCA, despite being capable of using his smartphone to digitally manage his finances through a mobile wallet or a mobile banking app.

This brings us to the question of whether ROSCAs can and should be digitized. We have seen that the personal identities of members and their contributions—the two defining aspects of ROSCAs—can be shared and managed digitally. Indeed, several FinTech start-ups across the globe have launched smartphone applications that target digitally savvy youth, hoping to redefine one of the oldest financial products in the world. However, it is prudent for the developers to approach the product design iteratively. They should incorporate the best attributes of physical ROSCAs and avoid the common pitfalls of the digital marketplace, such as algorithmic blindness, poorly designed user interfaces, and the lack of good internet connectivity. We at MSC (MicroSave Consulting) followed a similar approach for the technical assistance we provided to FinTechs in the financial inclusion lab in India.

Given below are the four key aspects that FinTechs must address as they seek to digitize ROSCAs:

1. Low-income individuals are extremely price sensitive to fees charged in digital transactions. ROSCAs appeal to this target segment because they do not levy extraneous costs and require minimal record-keeping. However, people would lose this benefit if they had to pay a membership fee to a digital platform to manage the transactions of their group and distribute the lump sum. This price sensitivity is further accentuated by the fact that many members are conditioned by a present bias—they join the group merely to be the first in rotation to access the lump-sum, also referred to as the “early pot motive”. In fact, some members regret joining a ROSCA when their distribution is slated for a later date in the cycle. Hence, they are likely to be discouraged from using a ROSCA in a digital format if they are expected to pay a fee upfront.

2. The role of a group leader is pivotal to the administration and success of a ROSCA. The group leader pre-selects suitable candidates, brings members together for meetings, guarantees that the money is not lost, and serves as the human ledger of the ROSCA who retains the records in an informal manner. For a ROSCA to operate on a digital platform, the members need to negotiate on various aspects. They need to onboard new members and decide on the distribution cycle as well as the rotation policy. For many ROSCAs, the status quo of remaining offline with a designated group leader could appear less of a hassle.

3. Social interactions among the members of a ROSCA cannot be replicated or understood clearly on a digital platform. Digital platforms that promote ROSCAs are keen to use the data of its members to cross-sell customized third-party products such as credit (typically offered to those who have not yet accessed the lumpsum payment), insurance and cashback coupons, as a way to keep usage fees low. However, since most of the social dynamics in ROSCAs takes place offline and face-to-face among the members, it is difficult to build an adequate customer profile that can be used to cross-sell products, even with the advent of chatbots and artificial intelligence.

4. The poor have used ROSCAs historically as an informal savings product for the household and not just the individual. While Ravi may put his own money into the ROSCA after the first week of each month, this does not necessarily mean he uses the lump sum for personal expenses or without consulting his family members. It is necessary to understand the group and family dynamics to design the products accordingly. To replicate offline decision-making, chat groups can be made available on the digital ROSCA platforms to enable the family members to hold discussions.

Our work on the digitization of savings groups highlights the importance of human interface to complement tech algorithms. M-Chama, a digital ROSCA product offered by Postbank in Kenya, has incorporated human touch-points in the form of agent networks and partnerships with community-building institutions. Today, M-Chama covers close to 5,000 savings groups in Kenya and holds savings worth more than USD 400,000 since its launch in 2016. Although it is expected to break even this year, as per MSC’s analysis, M-Chama still has a long way to go, given that there are over 300,000 Chamas in the country today. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that mass digital adoption in Kenya, the epicenter of the digital finance revolution, has been in the area of payments or credit rather than savings. Physical ROSCAs continue to be the most sought-after means of savings in the country.

For digital ROSCAs to take off, they must embody the modular, customizable nature of their physical cousins. The burgeoning venture capital industry in India is also aware of the importance of incremental steps to digitize such traditional and informal savings platforms. Although the digitization of ROSCAs introduces perceived benefits, certain behaviors and interactions cannot be replicated on a digital platform. For example, the digital platform can harm the creditworthiness of a ROSCA member who delays their payment for a genuine reason. This discipline or rigidity has deterred low-income individuals from taking up formal financial services.

Digital finance presents many opportunities and avenues for social transformation but ROSCAs may indeed be the final frontier. Yet as things stand in Ravi’s case, he may depend on the digital world to earn money but he would not save through a digital ROSCA just yet.

The blog was first released on Inc42.com as an authored article.

Covid-19 and low-income households in central Bangladesh

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Income plummets in Bangladesh as a result of Covid-19 – Stuart Rutherford’s Hrishipara diaries reveal, in graphic detail, the daunting scale of the challenges facing the poor worldwide. “Anxiety prevails, as shown in the end-March version of the monthly survey we take of our diarists’ thoughts about the month just past, and their hopes for the month to come. The fear, overwhelmingly, is of loss of income. Much of what needs to be done by policymakers is already understood. This blog testifies to, rather than reveals, those needs. What is described here suggests than from the diarists’ point of view the top priorities are relief measures to ensure food and income security and to prevent distress sales of assets. Financial services need to be unlocked, above all to release savings in MFI accounts. And the high level of anxiety means people need, somehow, to be reassured.

The DFS ecosystem in Bangladesh

Posted on by MSC

The digital financial services (DFS) landscape of Bangladesh evolved multifold in 2019. This can be traced to the efforts of the government, the banking regulator, and policymakers in Bangladesh. As of December 2019, the country had 971,000 MFS agents who, on average, conducted 7.33 million daily transactions worth USD 156 million. Bangladesh has a total of11,320 agent banking outlets that serve 5.26 million customers. At present, 16 companies offer mobile financial services and 21 banks offer agent banking services. In addition, nearly 92% of the population now live within 5km of a financial sector access point.

TIGHTENED MONITORING: In 2019, two providers had to close their mobile financial services (MFS) operations-IFIC and Exim Bank. The providers did not have a substantial market share and were on the verge of being instructed to surrender their MFS licenses by the regulator due to their long-term dormancy in the market as MFS players. This move propagated a clear message-the regulator has tightened its grip on MFS and every player is expected to perform.

THE LAUNCH OF EKYC: Bangladesh Bank (BB), with approval from the Election Commission, initiated a pilot on e-KYC in September, 2019 with 15 commercial banks and two MFS providers. The list of participating commercial banks included state-owned commercial banks and agent banking providers, while bKash and Rocket were the two MFS players. The ICT Division of the government launched a gateway for easier and faster verification of national identity cards (NIDs). The “Porichoy” portal, which is connected to the Election Commission (EC) database, enables public and private organizations to provide services by verifying the NID cards of their customers. Electronic Know Your Customer or e-KYC mechanism, is a convenient process for the customers and helps reduce cost and time during enrollments.

INCREASED MFS TRANSACTION LIMITS: Bangladesh Bank raised the transaction ceiling for MFS in May, 2019. This had been a consistent demand from various industry players and policymakers. The increased limits affected multiple payment services that the MFS providers offered, such as inward remittances, e-commerce payments, business payments for micro and small enterprises, and payroll disbursements across the country.

PSP LICENCE AND E-MONEY GUIDELINES: BB issued guidelines for e-money service (EMS) in February, 2019 to highlight the transaction limits for e-wallets and to identify who can issue e-money. In July, the central bank increased the limit of transactions for e-wallets and clarified that only providers with a payment service provider (PSP) license can offer e-wallet services. At present, Bangladesh Bank has licensed iPay and Dmoney as payment service providers. This was a proactive move from the regulator to clearly state that FinTechs can operate in Bangladesh with a PSP license. Further, with the increased transaction limits, it sought to gain the acceptance of customers to FinTech services.

A major reason behind the success of various initiatives by the Bangladesh Bank is its support for the notion that innovations around use-cases are needed to drive transaction volumes and values. Guidelines such as widening the transaction limits and allowing non-bank entities to offer ATM services are critical to foster innovation and boost competition in the industry.

The future outlook for 2020

One aspect that we wished to include in our developments is the commitment of the regulator to drive the agenda for the financial inclusion of women. Bangladesh Bank has supported taking women agents on board and has made toolkits available for the industry players to develop financial products for women. The toolkit was a result of MSC’s study commissioned by IFC. BB also incentivizes banks to support the provision of credit to women entrepreneurs. Further, DFS providers target women workers in readymade garment factories with tailor-made products such as different cash-in and cash-out charges. Though these innovations drive gender inclusion in a way, we are yet to see these extended to the larger women population. MSC believes bridging the gender divide will be a top priority for Bangladesh Bank in 2020.

We also believe that the regulator will need to encourage agent banking service providers. Agent banking in Bangladesh has had organic growth until now. The country had 5.26 million agent banking customers, as of December 2019. The agent banking setup is complex and these agents have to invest around BDT 150,000-200,000 (~USD 2000) to start an agent banking outlet. However, we believe the providers may have been conservative in their outreach strategy. In countries such as India and Kenya, banks have been able to penetrate even the most distant areas through agents.

Another area, or rather, organisation that will demand the focus of Bangladesh Bank in 2020 is Nagad, the digital financial service of Bangladesh Post Office (BPO).The MFS service has already picked a significant market share by registering more than 10 million wallets and 130,000 agents across the country within the first nine months of its commercial operation. BB may want to work with BPO to ensure that the MFS players and Nagad remain competitive within a level playing field of market operations.

Finally, the initiative of Bangladesh Bank that allows non-bank entities to set up “White Label ATMs (WLAs)”and point-of-sale (POS) terminals is worth mentioning. As per the World Bank data from 2017, with 8.07 ATMs per 100,000 people, Bangladesh ranked the lowest in terms of the density of ATMs against the size of the adult population. This is in contrast to China, India, and Pakistan with 81.45, 22.07, and 10.44 ATMs per 100,000 people, respectively. These entities will operate under the payment system operator (PSO) license, as of September, 2019. At present, only three PSOs are operational in Bangladesh, as per a report from Bangladesh Bank. We believe this move will encourage the participation of the private sector in the financial services market.

Given that around 50 percent of its population remain unbanked, Bangladesh will need to take policy decisions to push the service providers further in 2020. MSC believes that the key focus areas for Bangladesh Bank shall be to push for technological disruption, expand its work in e-KYC, tailor the design of products and services for women, and utilize the potential of agent banking.

The blog was also published on The Financial Express on 13th of March, 2020

Same problems, same inequalities: Women in the digital gig economy

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“Gig work provides the flexibility I need but not the money I deserve…”

The world is increasingly going digital and technology that could only be imagined a decade ago is now a reality. Innovation has had a significant impact in encouraging women’s participation in the delivery of services enabled by technology platforms. This has given rise to the gig economy—an ecosystem that facilitates workers who are either employed or unemployed to earn income through part-time jobs, referred to as “gigs”.

The digital gig economy in Africa has quickly gained prominence over time, and continues to enhance opportunities for youth and women. Research ICT Africa estimates that by the end of 2018, there were 277 unique digital platforms in Africa alone serving close to 5 million gig workers. Some digital platforms operate internationally, such as Airbnb, Uber, Jumia, which serve multiple markets. Others are more localized and target their own markets, such as Sendy and Lynk in Kenya, goDropping in Ghana, and Gokada in Nigeria, among others.

Gender dynamics in the gig economy

Some of MSC’s recent research work in Kenya indicates increasing participation of women, especially in the blue-collar digital gig economy. Emerging platforms are enabling women to take up gig work and use their time more effectively. The flexibility of gig work enables women to offer services they are skilled at and schedule their work according to their availability. However, we observed that women were more involved in traditionally female-oriented jobs, such as hair-dressing, beauty, and housekeeping. Women take on these roles because of their familiarity in that line of work, their risk-averse nature, as well as the dictates of societal norms. Men in the gig economy are more involved in jobs such as delivery, construction, driving, and home repairs.

A behavioral analysis of gig workers reveals significant differences between the motivations for women becoming gig workers as opposed to men.

This nature arguably—and inequitably—predisposes men to navigate gig work on digital platforms in a more lucrative manner. We have examined some of the reasons for the gender gap and would like to propose some measures to overcome the discrepancy.

Women face unique challenges when they use digital gig platforms to source work and market their products and services. In many emerging economies, ownership of digital devices that enable access to gig platforms has historically been uneven between men and women. Gig platforms in Kenya, such as Littlecab, a ride-hailing service or Sendy, an errands company, demand 24-hour availability to offer services. Women’s availability on digital gig platforms that require physical presence is restricted due to domestic demands. The number of hours that workers log on most platforms informs their ratings. This, in turn, affects their presumed relative level of capability negatively. Consequently, women get less gigs on platforms that assign job opportunities based on user ratings, which are influenced by platform experience.

Female gig workers and customers alike also face increased security risks in gig work that require their physical presence. For example, female customers express higher security concerns when hailing taxis on digital platforms. Female workers report instances of sexual harassment and thus are less willing to serve male customers, especially at odd hours of the day. In an interview with a female worker who offers beauty and wellness services, she indicated that “unwarranted demands” from men had driven her to avoid work requests from male customers.

As in the workplace, women on these platforms struggle to earn equitably. Women are observed to be more flexible in pricing and are more susceptible to being underpaid on gig platforms—including white-collar gig work. This sometimes goes to the extent of not covering the costs they incur to deliver the services. Consequently, women gig workers who charge prices commensurate with men for their services often get less business on digital platforms. A system where women charge less than their male counterparts leads to a devaluation of the services they offer.

Even as they deal with these challenges, female platform workers either do not get sufficient work or drop out entirely from the digital gig platforms.

How can we encourage women to participate in the gig economy?

Stakeholders can explore different measures to address these challenges and encourage the continued participation of women. Some platform owners have been proactive in putting in place measures to resolve these issues.

To account for the intermittent availability of female workers, a system that allows workers to indicate when they are available could limit the negative implications that arise out of the level of platform experience of female workers. This way, the platform would not automatically discriminate women on ratings when they are not available.

Some platform owners provide an option for users and workers to choose whom they would like to receive services from or serve. For example, Bolt, a taxi-hailing app in several countries in Africa, allows female customers to choose female drivers and vice versa. AnNisa is a women-focused taxi-hailing platform that is run by women and serves women exclusively.

Some platform owners have implemented standard pricing for specific services to ensure the workers get adequate pay for their work. Platform owners could also put in place algorithms that encourage uniform pricing and let users simply choose a gig worker based on their respective ratings. Alternatively, gig platforms should explore measures through which customers can provide quality of service reviews that are used to rate workers on the platform. Higher ratings should allow workers to justify higher pricing, rather than ascribe to standard platform pricing.

Women’s empowerment through increased participation in the gig economy

Participation of women in the digital gig economy not only enhances employment opportunities and provides a source of income; it also helps to create a digital footprint of their work, and financial records in several instances. This, in turn, provides necessary data that financial institutions could use to design the right products and services to enhance women’s financial management and risk mitigation. When women are financially independent, it enhances their decision-making power, which boosts women’s economic empowerment.

We have a way to go to harness the gig economy for good.

MSC conducts a successful event on enhancing women’s economic empowerment through financial health with NITI Aayog and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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MSC concluded a workshop in Delhi on 4th March, 2020 in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The workshop, titled “Enhancing women’s economic empowerment through financial health—Insights from NITI Aayog’s transformation of aspirational districts” saw participation from financial inclusion experts, policymakers, and regulators across industries. The participants deliberated on policy and product recommendations that the government and financial services industry can adopt as it works towards greater financial health of women.

The event started with the keynote from Ms. Sarah Willis of the MetLife Foundation, where she spoke on setting the context on women’s financial health. This was followed by the inaugural address by Ms. Archana Vyas of THE Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, India, and the keynote address by Ms. Alka Upadhyaya, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Rural Development.

A panel of experts also discussed issues around women’s financial health for impactful women’s economic empowerment. The panelists included Mr. Anjani Singh of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Humaira Islam of Shakti Foundation Bangladesh, Ms. Jayshree Vyas of SEWA Bank, Ms. Manisha Sinha of India Post, and Ms. Varnali Deka, District Collector, Goalpara. The media across the country picked up various insights from the event conducted. Click through the links below to read a few mentions in the media.

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