MSC delivers regular training on product development at Boulder Institute of Microfinance. These events see attendance from CEOs, COOs, and senior management team members from operations, product development, research and development, and other relevant departments of financial institutions and central banks. These financial institutions include banks, cooperatives, and MFIs. They use the insights from our training sessions to develop or refine products and services for their target markets.
Our training equips participants with the skills and resources to:
- Examine options and opportunities to gather data on client needs, aspirations, perceptions, and behavior through secondary and primary research and behavioral analysis tools;
- Use a robust and systematic approach to product development and implementation;
- Design and implement pilot tests and roll-out to minimize risk and maximize success.
Over the years, MSC has supported more than 150 financial services providers to develop and deliver over 250 products and channels that now find use among 50 million-plus people.
Umati Capital contracted MSC to develop and deliver financial literacy training through digital media to the smallholder farmers in formal agri-value chains in Kenya. Working alongside Arifu, MSC developed the content and delivery methods. We conducted an in-depth assessment of the needs of the smallholder farmers in Kenya, and testing of in-person and SMS-based delivery of content to the participants. We developed real-time analytics on the adoption and impact to share the output of the pilot-run with Umati Capital.
As part of the deliverables, MSC prepared an interactive trainers’ manual and a learning guide in English for the farmers on financial literacy, credit, and savings management, among other areas. The final output by MSC and Arifu included platform access for publishing, delivering, and tracking content on SMS and Android applications, as well as a final monitoring and evaluation report.
By the end of the pilot, one-third of the smallholder farmer members of Umati Capital had received training through the in-person and the SMS based financial education modules. At the time of writing, this was being rolled out for smallholder farmer members across Kenya.
UNCDF contracted MSC (alongside Arifu and Fundación Capital) to develop and pilot-test financial literacy programs for refugees in Nyarugusu in Tanzania. Nyarugusu camp is the oldest refugee camp in the area. It hosts around 142,000 refugees, mainly Congolese and Burundians.
Nyarugusu has a vibrant economy within and outside the camp–characterized by savings groups, mobile money, and the creation of “common markets”, where refugees can trade with host communities on allocated days. This context made it ideal for UNCDF to pilot a program on refugee financial inclusion. MSC developed and tested digital and financial literacy programs for refugees. We developed a roadmap with concrete recommendations to scale up the program. At the time of writing, these programs would be delivered through in-person training, SMS, and tablets.
In the pilot phase, over 300 refugees in the Nyarugusu camp accessed the digital and financial literacy content. In the scale-up phase, planned from October, 2018 to May, 2019, over 30,000 refugees and hosts would be able to access the content to enhance their financial capability. By 2020, over 150,000 refugees and hosts would have accessed the digital and financial literacy courses to enhance their financial capabilities.
Faulu Microfinance Bank (MFB) decided to improve access to quality education for low and middle-income households, through strengthening and expansion of its educational finance portfolio. MSC supported Faulu MFB on strategic planning, market research, product development, and business intelligence reporting – with a target on relationship officers and risk management.
Our engagement resulted in Faulu MFB successfully refining its products. Faulu developed its institutional capacity and grew its educational finance portfolio. As of September, 2018, over 7% of the institution’s retail, individual, and SME portfolio is towards meeting the education finance needs of their clients and schools in Kenya.
ADB commissioned MSC to implement the Microfinance Expansion Project (MEP) in Papua New Guinea. A key component of the project was Financial education (FE) and business development skills (BDS) training to clients and potential clients of MFIs. This and other components cumulatively addressed the low levels of financial literacy, business development, and management skills among clients. The MSC team delivered the training sessions under the brand name Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI), which was set up under the project, as the apex body for financial inclusion in the country.
MSC provided financial education training to over 91,000 clients, of whom over 43,000 were women. By the end of our involvement in 2015, about 390,000 households had active deposit accounts as against the baseline of 187,500 households in 2010. Over 70,000 households had active loan accounts as against 43,000 households in 2010. MSC also targeted business development skills training for 15,000 clients, of whom 20% were women.
The Departments of Basic Education and of Secondary Education, Uttar Pradesh (UP) distribute in-kind benefits to students under multiple schemes and through different processes. The departments wanted to understand how to improve their existing processes through digitization, automation, and digital authentication. MSC studied the processes for enrollment and delivery, management information systems, communication strategy, and grievance resolution for all in-kind transfer programs.
The result was a set of recommendations to re-engineer and enhance the efficiency of the processes, and step-by-step guides to implement these. MSC submitted the findings and recommendations to the heads of both the departments. We presented the findings to a high-level committee of policymakers in the state, who have been working to implement the proposed changes, which would have a positive impact on 16.4 million students in 164,694 government schools.