Recent Blogs
From Digital Adoption to Digital Advantage in Microfinance
Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) must move beyond piecemeal digital updates to comprehensive digitization. By evolving their models, MFIs can improve efficiency, reach more last-mile clients, and compete with new fintechs.
In Sierra Leone, Inclusive Finance is Key to Protecting Coastlines
CGAP and West Africa Blue are linking financial inclusion with mangrove conservation in Sierra Leone, using VSLAs to strengthen livelihoods, reduce pressure on ecosystems, and support sustainable, community-led climate solutions.
Building Climate-Resilient Microfinance: Lessons from Pakistan
Here, we share three key lessons in resilience from Pakistan’s microfinance sector to help other microfinance institutions (MFIs) avoid climate change undermining their operations and commitment to driving financial inclusion.
The Hidden Costs of Forex Funding: Do Women Pay a Higher Price?
Smaller lenders serve women borrowers best but face high costs, forex risk, and limited scale. In light of this fact, donors and DFIs must expand local currency funding and strengthen risk management to close the gender gap in finance.
Is Climate Change Undermining Financial Inclusion? Early Evidence Says Yes
Early evidence from Pakistan confirms the need to shore up the financial institutions that serve vulnerable populations facing climate impacts, as climate risk threatens to undermine global progress on financial inclusion.
Which Kind of Microfinance Institutions Can Serve Women Best?
CGAP and MFR analysis of 300+ MFIs explores the trends, challenges, and successes in closing the gender credit gap for smaller borrowers and identifies optimal designs for supporting more women clients, more equitably, and in more parts of the world.
Navigating Compound Crises: Microfinance Learnings From Lebanon
Lebanon has faced a recent string of compounding crises, crippling GDP and decimating the Lebanese currency. Al Majmoua MFI survived the freefall and offers valuable insights into the diversity of measures that can be taken in the face of crisis.
In a Post-Pandemic World, How Healthy Are MFIs?
CGAP analysis with MFR of MFIs post-COVID suggests that there seems to be a cluster of institutions still experiencing high credit risk, and unfortunately, the smallest institutions seem to be facing the biggest problems.
Friend or Foe to the World’s Poor? Settling the Microfinance Debate
Two debates fuel a seemingly never-ending cycle of support and criticism for the microfinance industry. We propose ways to resolve knowledge gaps that perpetuate these debates, which are also relevant for the broader financial inclusion community.
When is Interoperability Right for Microfinance?
When is interoperability right for microfinance institutions? We draw on interviews with 40 small financial institutions to unpack the complex picture around a universal approach to ensuring all institutions benefit from real-time, digital payments.
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Overlooking the Regulatory Environment
Digitization can benefit microfinance institutions (MFIs), but it also creates regulatory complexity. Losing sight of the regulatory environment can lead to costly mistakes. Here are three regulatory aspects of digitization for MFIs to consider.
Reflection: Coordinating Responses to Microfinance Solvency Challenges
The reverberating effects of COVID-19 continue to pose challenges for segments of the microfinance sector. Here are three areas where a coordinated response among microfinance stakeholders will be important going forward.
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Underestimating Change Management
Microfinance institutions are often unprepared to manage the changes that come with digitization. The good news is that through effective change management, they can digitize successfully and generate value for themselves and their customers.
COVID-19 and Microfinance: How Digitization Helps Build Resilience
When done right, with a focus on creating value for customers, digitization can improve the resilience of the people microfinance providers serve.
MFI Digitalization: How Can DFIs and IFIs Contribute?
From funding digital innovation to boosting digital literacy, here are some ways that development finance institutions and international financial institutions can accelerate the digitization of microfinance in Africa.
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Getting Bogged Down in Technology
Rushing into technology solutions, without having the institutional capability in place to commercialize them, is a common mistake microfinance institutions make when digitizing. Here's how to avoid this costly misstep.
COVID-19 and Microfinance: Managing Trouble with Restructuring
What have microfinance institutions and their investors accomplished so far in their restructuring deals? What have they learned? And how can they improve readiness for the next crisis?
COVID-19 and Microfinance: What’s Next for Equity Investors?
Access to funding has been a top priority for microfinance providers during COVID-19 . Debt investors have played a key role in supporting providers through the crisis. Now, as providers focus on recovery and growth, equity capital is needed too.
The Menace of COVID-19 for Microfinance
FINCA Impact Finance President and CEO Andrée Simon explains what’s needed for the most vulnerable microfinance institutions and their customers to overcome the pandemic.