Client Stories

The Cooperativa Financiera de Antioquia (CFA) is helping empower rural Colombian communities by offering crucial services like financial education, business development, and cooperative training in 37 municipalities. The impact of CFA's work was highlighted during Queen Máxima's visit on 26 February 2024, where the Special Advocate saw firsthand the success of local entrepreneurs.

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

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

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… Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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