Eight Years of Measuring Impact

Becoming an expert

Carlos Wafo of Cameroon expanded his capabilities in digital finance through DFI courses. His former manager Patrick Mayoh tells us how this gave Carlos the confidence boost he needed to share his innovative ideas and advance the entire organisation they both worked for.

Patrick and Carlos both worked at UBA Cameroon, which won Bank of the Year and an award for Most Innovative Bank during their tenure. Patrick attributes this success to Carlos’ having the confidence to assert himself as the digital finance expert he has become since studying at DFI.

“Carlos was instrumental in negotiating and securing deals, one of which is the biggest pre-paid deals the bank has secured to date – assisting the National Electricity Provider in Cameroon to pay their employees electronically. Carlos crafted the value proposition proposal and his team landed the deal,” says Patrick, now of Cameroon’s Eco Bank.

“Thanks to DFI, Carlos became more confident, knowledgeable and conversant when it came to digital finance. This has led to his latest great career move to FSS Technologies where he’s now regional manager, in charge of four or five countries.”

Becoming a teacher

Farouq Kakuru of Bank of Africa in Uganda cultivated his knowledge through courses available at DFI. Veronica Sentongo of Kenya’s ICEA Lion Group, previously Farouq’s manager, expressed admiration for his willingness to share what he has learnt.

She says, “Farouq has gone from being a learner to a teacher – someone who shares his insights and educates his team members.” She believes that if he continues in this vein he will be a thought leader for digital financial services in East Africa.

“When he first joined my team, he was trying to learn as much as he possibly could in order to enhance his position. But then he became more confident in dispersing information by posting useful things on our group and regularly reaching out to people privately.” Collaboration is key.

Accion case study: Impact of DFI Courses on Senior staff of a global company, Accion…[Read more]

Bank of Kigali case study: DFI courses influence on Rwanda’s oldest and largest commercial bank, Bank of Kigali’s product development and leading to them developing inclusive mobile apps for marginalized groups…[Read more]

MTN Case study: Digital Finance practitioners employed by the multinational MTN felt that their participation in DFI courses allowed them to apply themselves more efficiently at a strategic and impactful level. This was seen especially in Benin where an e-commerce platform for mobile money was developed by practitioners who took one of DFIs foundational courses…[Read more]

Capacity to inform regulatory change

Gabriel Kamuge of Uganda’s DGRV, a programme dedicated to national structural improvements, said that he and his colleagues gained a greater understanding through Digital Frontiers Institute courses of how to address grassroots issues with top-level authorities.

Gabriel says, “We have improved a lot through understanding that what we have now is a strength that allows us to really develop regulatory guidelines going forward and to inform policy on what is most appropriate for different segments of our population. By upskilling, we can better support regulators of cooperatives such as the Bank of Uganda (BoU), the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives (MTIC) and the National Planning Authority (NPA).”

Seeing opportunities for change

Douglas Zulu works at Zambia’s Central Bank, which has sent several employees and whole departments, on DFI courses. One of which is the Payments Systems team of 18 people who Douglas says were equipped to review guidelines for mobile money operators by what they learned through DFI.

He explains, “Our guidelines initially omitted to level the playing field between an agent of a bank and an agent of a mobile money operator. This made the bank uncompetitive because some of our more conservative regulatory documents were not appropriate for all digital financial services. I would very much agree that because of exposure and learnings at DFI, the Payments Systems team could review these guidelines because they started considering what was actually happening on the ground.”

Douglas confirms his organisation’s position on purposeful training. “There is an appetite to learn and teach at the Central Bank, there’s also quite a lot of open-mindedness.”

Bank of Bangladesh case study: Bank of Bangladesh regulators look forward to systemic change through the knowledge gained from DFI courses, with their staff members already implementing new policies, digital finance products and services after receiving scholarships for DFI courses…[Read more]

Forward motion

Regulations are there to support industry, not restrict its growth. Only those at grassroots level with the confidence to affect change can influence the adoption of policies and drive new directives. Those with DFI training are equipped to do so and have done with great success despite often restrictive bureaucratic frameworks.

Collectively, practitioners, as well as CoPs and country associations, contributed to 47 DFS regulations, policies, or directives, of which 17 have been initiated and 30 have been fully developed. Our courses give these trailblazers, acting on behalf of banking institutions or as individual representatives of their own in-country associations but not as regulators themselves, the knowledge and skills to advance financial digitisation and inclusion in their countries.

Juliet Mburu works at FSD Kenya, which plays a key role in regulation through lobbying, writing policy briefs, and commenting on draft bills. Juliet believes that she and her colleagues’ exposure to DFI courses have enabled them to better advise and influence government on regulations. Juliet says, “Our work mostly involves retail and public sector payments. So, doing projects around the country’s digital identity has been very beneficial in building our capacity in how we influence and advise regulators.”

Mustapha of MTN Nigeria is not directly involved in regulation, but he feels that he is in a better position to review regulation documents, assess the implications, align MTN’s operations and ensure they are compliant.

Munir Bello is a Senior Regulatory Specialist at GSMA in the UK. He is taking courses on the Certified Digital Financial Professionals (CDFP) regulatory track and feels they are directly improving his own regulation skills. He says, “My title is Senior Regulatory Specialist, that’s what I do. So, courses on Consumer Protection, Anti-Money Laundering and Regulation in DFS have enhanced my skills in that regard.”

Bank of Bangladesh case study: Bank of Bangladesh regulators look forward to systemic change through the knowledge gained from DFI courses, with their staff members already implementing new policies, digital finance products and services after receiving scholarships for DFI courses…[Read more]

The largest proportion (more than 80%) of respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that the CoP fostered cross-sector collaboration. The quantitative findings were further supported by qualitative findings of the 2020 interviews; 78% of DFI practitioners interviewed reported collaboration that they have engaged in since taking a DFI course. The practitioners who are collaborating across sectors or across markets are doing so in different ways. Most reported-on collaborations, partnerships, and engagements with other organisations within their own sector, organisations in other sectors, the Central Bank, and with practitioners working in other countries.

Some practitioners credited DFI in the fruition and/or success of the collaborations, referencing the contacts and connections they had made; having a common framework with other DFI alumni, enabling effective engagement, and the use of DFI knowledge to identify suitable collaborators for projects and products. Practitioners expressed how their collaborations enabled solutions to be developed in the face of COVID-19.

Competition collaborating for good

Joao Gaspar from Paytek did a DFI course along with the employees of many of his competitor companies in Mozambique. He believes that because he and his fellow participants developed a a greater understanding of what was needed to advance the DFS sector, they were able to collaborate and create a new system for a third-party company. Joao said, “Instead of the companies competing with one another, they engaged and agreed to split the development process; they came together to produce a solution for the end customer.”

Gertrude Kadumbo from National Switch in Malawi engaged in cross-market collaborations because of the knowledge sharing facilitated by DFI. She welcomed her fellow practitioners from Mauritius and Seychelles who were sent to learn how Gertrude had integrated Malawi’s systems, specifically in integration of offline processes, and take these learnings to their own country.

In addition to practitioners engaging in collaborations on behalf of their employer, several Ugandan practitioners reported engagements on behalf of their country-based association, DFA, one of the stronger associations to have emerged from DFI. Uganda Farouq Kakuru (Bank of Africa, Uganda) collaborated with multiple banks to amend an interbank card charge so that it became low enough to increase financial inclusion, but high enough for banks to earn revenue. He says, “I represented the Bank of Africa at a meeting where all banks got together to come up with a suitable solution. This kind of collaboration is going to help all banks serve their customers at any ATM at a more subsidised cost. And to me, that is a great achievement, which was incepted in the CoPs and also meeting people from the different networks through DFI.”

Zambian case study: The digital finance landscape in Zambia has seen digital finance practitioners unified and a new crop of professionals is emerging having resulted in country-based initiatives already being implemented…[Read more]

Gathering to grow

Communities of practice involve the coming together of people in various ways. Online training sessions, webinars and WhatsApp groups have become increasingly useful during a time of social or physical distancing.

2020 E-Conference

In 2018,10 of the CoPs were exploring ways to formalise into professional associations and develop aims and ideas to implement in their respective countries. As of April 2020, DFI had four legally registered associations that emerged out of the CoPs, namely in Uganda, Zambia, Senegal, and Mozambique. Associations in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Benin are also planned.

These establishing of local professional associations out of the DFI training and CoPs is a clear demonstration of an Inclusive Digital Finance Profession forming, noting also that in 2021 these associations plan to converge into a global alliance of inclusive digital finance professionals – representing the profession on the global stage.

Meeting and sharing

Farouq Kakuru from Uganda’s Bank of Africa tells us about his CoP, he says, “We use a WhatsApp group to share knowledge via links to online resources, arrange meetings and ask or offer advice. The intention of everyone in the group is to be helpful in bettering each other. If I find a work task is a bit beyond my understanding, I believe there will be someone on the group who may be a professional in this particular field.”

Douglas Zulu from Zambia’s Central Bank is the chair of one of the first legally registered associations that emerged out of CoPs, the ADFP (a policy and private initiative). He says, “The association aims at bridging the gap between DFS providers and consumers. The key objectives are to offer technical advice in building the DFS ecosystem, payment systems sensitisation, support and promoting innovation and advocacy for financial inclusion, as well as co-opetition and interoperability. We advocate sustainability and enable financial markets to work for the poor by continuously sharing ideas among the practitioners and members of the association. This knowledge sharing extends to non-practitioners who may have interest in DFS and are keen to learn.” The association holds webinars, where discussions and presentations take place to support financial literacy in the DFS regulation space.

Uganda Case Study: Regulators in Uganda who are a part of the Digital Finance Association in-country initiative have successfully worked across their different institutions for the common goal of financial inclusion through policies as well as innovative product development…[Read more]