Searching: Research & Analysis

A Digital Credit Revolution: Insights from Borrowers in Kenya and Tanzania

To identify who is using digital credit, the purposes for which it is used, and the risks borrowers experience, CGAP, FSD Kenya, and FSD Tanzania undertook the first large-scale surveys dedicated to these topics.

Using Satellite Data to Scale Smallholder Agricultural Insurance

Smallholder families that use agricultural insurance can increase investments in more productive farming and nonfarming ventures as they feel more confident in managing related risks. However, significantly scaling the use of agricultural insurance among smallholders has been difficult in many parts of the world, especially in Africa.

Basic Regulatory Enablers for Digital Financial Services

CGAP shows how an enabling regulatory framework that is based on four enablers has contributed to advancing digital financial services in 10 countries.

Escaping Darkness: Understanding Consumer Value in PAYGo Solar

This paper uses research and interviews with customers to understand the value they derive from PAYGo solar, why they decided to purchase it, how they were able to afford and pay for it, and whether they considered the product a “good deal” in the end.

Banking in the M-PESA Age

This Working Paper explores three approaches banks in Kenya have used to respond to mobile money. While nonbank mobile financial services can fundamentally reshape the financial sector in a developing market, as they have clearly done in Kenya, mobile services need not represent an existential threat to the traditional banking industry.

Competition in Mobile Financial Services: Lessons from Kenya & Tanzania

This working paper aims to provide insights on the role that effective competition and competition policy play in developing MFS, and in turn promoting financial inclusion using Kenya and Tanzania as case countries.

Mystery Shopping for Financial Services

This Technical Guide is designed to enable policy makers with jurisdiction over market conduct issues, consumer protection organizations, and development agencies to conduct mystery shopping exercises.

Supervision of Banks and Nonbanks Operating through Agents

This paper draws from research conducted in Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Uganda to look at how providers identify, classify, and manage risks related to the use of agents and how supervisors assess providers.

How M-Shwari Works: The Story So Far

Offered as a collaboration between the Commercial Bank of Africa and mobile network operator Safaricom through its mobile money service M-PESA, M-Shwari has piqued the interest of mobile money watchers looking for the next innovation to drive financial inclusion globally.

Electronic G2P Payments: Evidence from Four Lower-Income Countries

This Focus Note presents the evidence gained from a comprehensive study of the experiences in developing and implementing e-payment schemes linked to financial inclusion in Haiti, Kenya, the Philippines, and Uganda.