Client Stories

UNSGSA Queen Máxima meets with members of a Village Savings and Loan Association in Abobo, Abidjan, on 13 June 2022.
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Digital Finance Helps Rural Women Save and Grow Micro Businesses

In Côte d’Ivoire, as in many other low- and middle-income countries, low-income entrepreneurs often form small, informal groups to help members save money, access loans, and obtain emergency insurance. Since 2006, the international nonprofit organization CARE has been working in Côte d’Ivoire to help these groups—called Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs)—connect with formal financial institutions, digitize practices, and provide members with financial education and training.
June 27, 2022

Innovative Insurance Products Help Farmers Guard Against Climate Shocks

For farmers in Senegal, a successful harvest largely depends on the amount of rain that falls during the growing season. More than two-thirds of the sector is entirely rain-fed, exposing smallholder farmers to a high level of volatility—a risk that has increased due to climate change. To help… Read more
June 30, 2022
UNSGSA Queen Máxima meets with Mame Fatin Gueye (far right), an agricultural entrepreneur, and her employees, while learning about index-based insurance products developed by the National Agricultural Insurance Company of Senegal (CNAAS) to help farmers build resilience to climate shocks. Mouhamadou Moustapha Fall, Director General of CNAAS, is pictured third from the right. Photo credit: Patrick van Katwijk

In Senegal, myAgro Helps Farmers Save and Plan for the Future

When Badjane Diouf, a farmer in rural Senegal, was asked what her harvest is like since farming with myAgro, she shared that her harvest tripled from five bags of peanuts to 15 bags in her most recent growing season—enabling her to sell some of her harvest to save money and meet her family's food… Read more
June 28, 2022
UNSGSA Queen Máxima listens to a myAgro Village Entrepreneur, Mame Diarra (left), and myAgro’s Senegal Interim Country Director, Thierno Faye (far left), to learn how myAgro’s innovative, mobile layaway financing model helps smallholders increase yields and achieve greater financial security. Anushka Ratnayake, founder and CEO of MyAgro, is pictured far right. Photo credit: Patrick van Katwijk

Wi-Agri’s Digital Platform Links Cashew Farmers with Buyers and Financing in Côte d’Ivoire

For the smallholder farmers who grow cashew nuts in rural Côte d’Ivoire, earning a steady living can be precarious. Many of them struggle to find buyers for their crops. Most of them are also unable to access loans and other financial services, making it difficult to save for the future or grow… Read more
June 24, 2022
UNSGSA Queen Máxima visits a FOODS’CO factory that processes cashew nuts near Abidjan on 13 June 2022.

Digital Financial Services Gives the Doughnut Business a Boost in Côte d'Ivoire

Guillaume Gnankou founded Gnank Inspiration, in the Abidjan neighborhood of M'pouto in 2017. Today, Miss Gnankou has grown that business to include one full-time employee and another part-time, two stalls, and offers the company's services online as well as with home deliveries through external… Read more
July 2, 2021

Move from Cash to Online Payments Helps Beauty Entrepreneurs Grow Business in West Africa

In charge of the technical and digital arm of e-commerce store Fabellashop, entrepreneur Felix Simaki decided to use PayDunya’s WebPay service to facilitate orders paid by credit cards and mobile money accounts. PayDunya is an online payments platform in Senegal founded in 2015 by four young tech… Read more
July 1, 2021
UNSGSA Queen Máxima speaks with PayDunya co-founder Youma Fall (top left) and Fabellashop co-founder Felix Simaki (top right).

Finja and Unilever Partner to Digitize Supply Chain Payments in Pakistan

Muhammad Abid Islam, owner of the New Waseem General Store at Ghalib Market in Lahore, had problems with his staff that resulted in a financial loss last year. So, he decided to cut ties with his employees and manage the business end-to-end on his own. To recuperate his losses, Mr. Abid Islam, a… Read more
January 17, 2020
Muhammad Abid Islam, owner of the New Waseem General Store at Ghalib Market in Lahore, benefited from a unique collaboration between Unilever and Finja—a financial services platform in Pakistan—to digitize supply chain payments between distributors and retailers. Photo credit: Marianne Wiltjer

Mobile Wallets: The Newest Tool for Beauticians at a Pakistani Startup

Safia Javed, a 48-year-old beautician and mother of three sons in Lahore, has been the lone breadwinner in her family since her husband experienced renal failure several years ago and can no longer work. However, being responsible for earning the money to support her family did not mean she was… Read more
January 16, 2020
During a November 2019 country visit to Pakistan, the UNSGSA listens to Ms. Safia Javed, a 48-year-old beautician, explain how a mobile wallet helped give her more security and control over her money. Photo credit: Marianne Wiltjer

Financial Inclusion and Job Skills Transform the Lives of Women in Bangladesh

For Bangladesh’s poorest women, the roadblocks to earn and save money have traditionally been high. A government program supported by UNDP known as SWAPNO (Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities) aims to lower those barriers. Implemented under the national social security… Read more
December 18, 2019
During a visit to Bangladesh in July 2019, the Special Advocate meets with beneficiaries of a government program supported by UNDP known as SWAPNO. Photo credit: UNDP

New Digital Platforms Expand Financial Options for Rural Dwellers in Bangladesh

When the UNSGSA last visited Bangladesh in 2015, she met rural residents who had just started to access financial services for the first time—along with vital government services and basic internet—due to an ambitious government program called Access to Information (a2i). Since, a2i has built on… Read more
December 16, 2019
During a July 2019 country visit to Bangladesh, the UNSGSA speaks with users and agents of a2i's new integrated digital platform known as ekPay, as well as ekShop, the latter of which enables a2i to facilitate entrepreneurship online. Photo credit: Robin Utrecht

Early Lessons from the CEO Partnership for Economic Inclusion

By Eric Duflos and Nancy Widjaja A few months after the leaders of the CEO Partnership for Economic Inclusion (CEOP) met for the second time in Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF), we spent two days working with the companies’ advisors to advance… Read more
May 23, 2019
The Special Advocate applauded the drive of the CEOP advisors at a recent workshop in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Blog: Doing Business While Doing Good: CEOs Partner to Boost Inclusion

Members of the CEOP met privately to discuss their progress, and also participated in a public event about the initiative. By Eric Duflos   Read more
February 15, 2019
Members of the CEOP met privately to discuss their progress, and also participated in a public event about the initiative.

Blog: For Tanzanian Farmers, Digital Platform Strengthens Every Link in the Value Chain

Tanzanian farmer Martha Emanuel Talanju. Photo credit: Sebnem Sener By Sebnem Sener Over the past three years, Tanzanian farmer Martha Emanuel Talanju has seen her business growing steadily thanks to a value-chain financing program from the Farm to Market… Read more
January 8, 2019
Tanzanian farmer Martha Emanuel Talanju. Photo credit: Sebnem Sener