The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), launched by NITI Aayog in 2018, is India’s first public-private digital aggregator platform dedicated to advancing women’s entrepreneurship. Designed as a holistic ecosystem enabler, WEP addresses six core needs of women entrepreneurs—training, finance, market access, business development, mentorship, networking, and compliance.
Since 2022, MSC has been a key technical and strategic partner to WEP. In 2024, we were appointed as the Project Management Unit (PMU), responsible for overall program management, stakeholder coordination, evidence generation, and design of flagship initiatives. We also lead strategic planning across WEP’s five core pillars: capital, markets and networks, digital, outreach, and data and platforms.
Led by MSC, WEP has created the following impacts.
- Government collaboration: Onboarded five central ministries to WEP’s Steering Committee. Designed and implemented national programs with MoMSME (Yashasvini) that led to the formalization of 450,000+ women entrepreneurs, and with the Ministry of Skill Development (Swavalambini), to nurture future entrepreneurs among female students.
- Financing Women Collaborative (FWC): Co-chaired by MSC and WEP, FWC brought together 15 financial institutions. It assisted the disbursement of USD 12.62 million in loans to women and delivered financial literacy training to 32,428+ women. It also provided technical assistance to FIs in designing gender-intelligent loan products.
- Policy advocacy: MSC and WEP’s joint submission with TU CIBIL led to the RBI’s 2024 circular mandating SHG member-level credit reporting, which impacted over 80 million women by enabling the creation of individual credit histories.
- Evidence generation: MSC led multiple data-driven reports, including:
- From Borrowers to Builders: Women’s Role in India’s Financial Growth Story (2025)
- Women and Credit Report (2023)
- Mentorship for Women Entrepreneurs: A Highway to Growth (2023)
- Decoding Government Support to Women Entrepreneurs in India (2022)
- State-level impact: WEP deepened regional presence through state chapters in Telangana, Mizoram, and Goa, using local ecosystems to support women entrepreneurs.
- Enterprise acceleration: MSC anchored multiple Award to Reward (ATR) programs, including WEP Unnati, an accelerator for 15 women greenpreneurs across diverse sectors such as sustainable fashion, agro-waste, eco-tourism, and renewable energy.
- Digital Public Good (DPG) for Women: WEP evolved into a DPG offering scalable digital support assets like:
- ASK WEP – A peer-mentorship and real-time helpdesk
- WEP Cares – A wellness-focused initiative providing access to mental health experts
- Alternative credit scoring: With MSC’s technical assistance, MAVIM, a state-level women’s institution serving 1.8 million SHG members, created an alternative credit score and the expansion of enterprise financing.
The Gates Foundation commissioned the project.
MSC supported Proximity Designs to transform Proximity Finance (PF), its microfinance program, into an independent, full-service financial institution. MSC guided PF through a comprehensive legal and institutional transformation and enabled its evolution from a credit-focused program into a regulated entity offering a broader suite of financial services, which includes savings and deposit products.
MSC led the development of a detailed transformation roadmap, which covered legal, institutional, and strategic dimensions. Our team conducted a regulatory review and provided expert guidance on key elements of the transformation process, including:
- The legal transformation (legal constitution and institutional form, ownership and shareholding structure, corporate governance, organizational structure, institutional development, and transformation)
- The strategic plan, which included the mission, vision, and competitive strategy
- Products and services
- Commercial or marketing strategy
- HR management
- Processes and systems
- Internal audit
- Risk management
- Accounting and financial management
- IT and MIS
- Funding strategy
IFC commissioned the project.
Faulu Microfinance Bank, a market leader, is one of the fastest-growing microfinance institutions in Kenya, with 43 banking branches and 21 marketing offices. The bank upgraded its core banking system to drive the efficiency and growth of the bank’s assets and liabilities. The bank contracted MSC to help with its transformation and drive effective and efficient credit and deposits.
MSC provided technical assistance to reengineer the credit and operations processes, conduct client segmentation, and develop a credit scoring model and strategy to drive deposits through the current and savings accounts. Faulu implemented these improvements. As a result, Faulu refined and enhanced its credit, operations, and finance processes. It now provides a better customer experience through improved processes and efficiency.
The key results from the intervention included a 28% reduction in costs, 2X efficiency, a 50% reduction in turnaround time, diversified liability sources, and helped future-proof the organization.
Faulu Microfinance Bank commissioned the project.
The Cordaid-Rabobank Foundation-MSC Indonesia microfinance development program supported a selected group of 15 microfinance institutions (MFIs) spread across Java and Bali islands in Indonesia.
MSC subsequently provided assistance to strengthen the MFIs’ operations through strategic business planning, market research, product development, testing and rollout, process re-engineering, risk management, and a variety of other key interventions. MSC also trained local consultants so that they could provide quality services in a sustainable manner to the partners and to other financial institutions.
In a subsequent phase of the project, MSC strengthened the effectiveness of microfinance institutions in augmenting the livelihoods of the low-income segment, served by the partner cooperatives. Across the two phases, over 345,341 micro-entrepreneurs, including 30,000 smallholder farmers, benefited from accessing enhanced financial services.
MSC supported the end-to-end digital transformation of BURO, one of Bangladesh’s leading microfinance institutions (MFIs), to strengthen its operational efficiency, expand outreach, and enhance customer experience. The objective was to help BURO adopt appropriate digital technologies, upskill its workforce, and diversify its product offerings to better serve its clients.
We followed a three-phase approach:
- Assessment and project design: We began with a comprehensive baseline assessment to understand BURO’s existing business model, technology landscape, and operational capabilities. This phase included a strategic planning exercise to define the digital transformation roadmap and the design of a pilot project aligned with BURO’s long-term goals.
- Pilot preparation: We strengthened BURO’s internal capacity by establishing the necessary back-end systems, defining operational processes, and aligning human resources. Our team worked closely with BURO to ensure the institution was ready to effectively launch the pilot phase.
- Pilot implementation and strategic planning: We supported the rollout and real-time monitoring of the digital pilot. Based on the findings and insights from this phase, we facilitated a final round of strategic planning to refine the digital transformation strategy and prepare for scale-up.
The first phase involved baseline assessment and project design, where we conducted a strategic planning exercise on the business model and pilot project. In the second phase of pilot preparation, we focused on establishing the back-end systems and HR resources needed to roll out the pilot phase. The last phase was pilot rollout and monitoring, followed by final strategic planning. For more details, read the case study here.
MetLife Foundation commissioned the project.
A leading commercial bank in India with a fast growing microfinance portfolio required an adequate human resource management system to support and fuel its growth in a sustainable manner.
The bank offered various financial products, such as credit and liability products to entrepreneurs, low-income clients, and SMEs. MSC designed the organizational structure from the bank’s perspective while making the structure effective enough for the bank to offer microfinance and SME products. The HR system included the development of the organizational hierarchy for microfinance operations, compensation packages, staff incentive policy, human resource policies, and guidelines. The inputs from this project helped to streamline the microfinance vertical of the bank.
The leading commercial bank commissioned the project.