Client Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tanzanian farmer Martha Emanuel Talanju. Photo credit: Sebnem SenerBy 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 Alliance… Read more

Vilash and other dabbawalas can now collect instant digital payments for delivering hundreds of thousands of home-cooked lunches every day. Photo credit: UNSGSA/Ruhani KaurEveryone’s talking about the India Stack these days, but what does it mean for real lives of… Read more

By Nancy Widjaja Anywhere you look in Jakarta these days, you’ll see the bright green helmet and jacket of a Go-Jek motorbike driver carving a path down the crowded streets. Established in 2010 as a ride-hailing service, Go-Jek has become a ubiquitous presence in Indonesia’s cities. Through the… Read more

Tucked away in the bustling Ijesha Market in Lagos, Flora Edojah’s small catfish stall seems as humble as its quiet owner.  Yet waters run deep with the 53-year-old businesswoman—and not just in her catfish pens. With 30 years of experience and a strong entrepreneurial drive, she is a successful… Read more