Estelle Lahaye

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Estelle Lahaye leads CGAP’s work to engage with funders, global advocacy bodies, and support organizations to co-create knowledge, share information, provide guidance, and advocate for effective financial inclusion.

Estelle has 15 years of experience in financial inclusion and banking. Her work at CGAP includes facilitating CGAP’s strategy development process and leading experimentation and research activities on digital financial services in the West African Economic and Monetary Union. Before joining CGAP, she worked as an account manager in Luxembourg at Banco Itaú Europa, the international private banking division of Banco Itaú, Brazil.

Estelle has a Master’s degree in Business from San Francisco State University and an undergraduate degree in banking, finance, and insurance from the University of Nancy 2 in France. She is fluent in French and Portuguese.

By Estelle Lahaye

Blog

5 Ways Gender Lens Investors Can Deepen Impact on Financial Inclusion

Gender lens investing is becoming a more popular way to invest in financial inclusion. Here are five ways funders can set themselves up for success and use this approach for greater impact.
Blog

Leveraging Gender Lens Investments for Women’s Financial Needs

Gender lens investing is gaining momentum among a wide range of investors as an approach to women's empowerment. Here are three ways this approach could accelerate women's financial inclusion.
Blog

How Can Funders Avoid Chasing Data as the Latest Shiny Object?

How can the financial inclusion community get more out of data to achieve sustainable impact? Here are four recommendations.
Research

Designing Data Initiatives to Advance Financial Inclusion

Donors and DFIs are looking for ways to leverage the potential of data to achieve financial inclusion impact. Yet, evidence shows that the availability and quality of data doesn’t automatically translate to impact.
Blog

3 Trends in Women’s Financial Inclusion Funding

Funding for women's financial inclusion is on the rise, but just 10 percent of financial inclusion programs are identified as having a gender component, according to the CGAP Funders Survey.