Catch the highlights and takeaways from our latest Thinkshop 2013 – ‘Leveraging Technology for Meaningful Financial Inclusion’ – held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. MSC organised the workshop in partnership with the Metlife Foundation. This event saw participation from prominent fintechs, banks, and market facilitators such as regulators and donors. Participants discussed the findings of our study on the potential for technology to address major financial inclusion gaps in four countries – Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Leveraging Technology for Meaningful Financial Inclusion in Asia
Challenges in the supply-side are a key reason for the financial exclusion of low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities, which form a large part of the 1.7 billion people who remain unbanked worldwide. Traditional banking and financial services tend to focus more on high-value, low-volume transactions by high net-worth customers and are highly capital- and labour-intensive.
Technology such as fintech presents an opportunity to remedy this situation, especially for the LMI customer segment. Fintech promises to deliver solutions through the pathway of digital distribution, which would reduce the cost of delivering financial services to the mass-market significantly. It can increase the accessibility of these financial services while disrupting traditional delivery approaches.
MicroSave conducted a study to understand the role of such technology in terms of financial inclusion for potential providers and users. The study intends to create an updated overview on enabling fintechs that offer disruptive and innovative solutions, including start-ups, mobile financial services providers, and IT solution or platform providers.
The study is based on extensive secondary research and stakeholder interviews with fintechs and FSPs across six markets – Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Vietnam. It helped identify the key challenges in financial inclusion that have a direct potential for technology disruption in each market. The study also assessed the market readiness in supply and adoption of technology solutions. Stakeholder interviews helped us to validate the findings and to understand the specific challenges that fintechs and FSPs face in addressing the target segments. The study is supported by the MetLife Foundation.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: Challenges and the road ahead
The mere ownership of an LPG cylinder alone is not enough to make people switch from using traditional fuel and chulhas. Challenges like the high cost of refills and lack of doorstep delivery of LPG cylinders in remote locations restrict the regular use of LPG. In this video, MicroSave suggests strategic solutions to enable a complete shift towards LPG usage.
Voices of non LPG users
Women in rural areas spend a major part of their life arranging for fuelwoodand cooking on a wood-fired oven, or chulha . This video describes problems like health hazards, drudgery and inconvenience associated with cooking on unclean fuels.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: The benefits unfolded
PMUY has been a phenomenal success so far. The scheme has successfully distributed more than 38 million LPG connections to poor households. The scheme aims at empowering women and changing the quality of their lives by providing them access to clean fuel. This video describes the scores of benefits that PMUY beneficiaries and their families have received as a result of the scheme.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: Building smiles, changing lives
Through this video, MSC attempts to describe the complete journey of a PMUY beneficiary, narrating the benefits they received and the challenges they face in getting LPG refills. The video explains the underlying causes behind the low use of LPG refills and provides solutions to bring a complete shift to LPG use.