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Micro savings,
maximum impact.

Scale2Save Logo

By the numbers

Objective

1 million more people banked

Investment

$16 million

Geographic Scope

6 countries in Africa

Projects

11 innovative models

Timeframe

6 years
Sep 2016 to Feb 2022

Latest news

Stay up-to-date with the latest news on WSBI and the Scale2Save programme.

Article picture 1

African banks must re-think business models in low-income market

12/03/2020 Read article
Article picture 2

Scale2Save video highlights youth research

08/10/20 Read article
Article picture 3

Scale2Save: 3rd Peer Review Workshop next month

22/09/20 Read article
More news

The Programme

Scale2Save is
all about balance

WSBI and Mastercard Foundation collaborate to establish the viability of small-balance savings in six African countries.
Logo WSBI
Logo Mastercard Foundation

How does it work?
Scale2Save is a programme that tests and applies with partner banks in Africa new business models that focus on people’s sensitivity to price and demand of bank services and products. Aimed at supporting banks to reach scale and sustainability with low-balance accounts, the programme seeks to target low-income, unbanked people and to address account dormancy and inactivity rates by them.

Programme work is anchored by developing viable business models with regional banks that create high-impact results that widen financial inclusion in a business-sustainable way. To do this, Scale2Save relies on customer insight to help develop those models by working together with local financial institutions and partner organisations. Scale2Save balances project work with research conducted and shared among partner banks and the wider sector.

At the same time, Scale2Save is committed to boost banks’ reliability too. That means weaving the programme’s aims into the fabric of partner bank strategies, encourage needed culture change within their organisations while fostering a continuous learning environment for people working within them.

Why is this important?

  1. People boost their well-being when they have access and make use of savings mechanisms like a basic account.
  2. There is need to widen financial inclusion to unbanked people and demonstrate to them that banks can be trusted partners in their financial lives.

-

​​Changing ​the banking model in Africa​.

The programme is being deployed in six countries:

  • Côte d’Ivoire – Advans Côte d’Ivoire
  • Kenya – Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (KPOSB)
  • Morocco – Al Barid Bank / Barid Cash
  • Nigeria – LAPO Microfinance Bank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB)
  • Senegal – Cofina Senegal
  • Uganda – Centenary Bank, FINCA Uganda and FINCA International, BRAC Uganda Bank Ltd.
  • Tanzania - TPB Bank is a learning partner

​​Scale2Save is built on a solid base

These key questions guide us throughout the entire process:

  • Which business models result in sustainable business cases for financially disadvantaged segments?
  • Does greater customer centricity lead to customer growth and more active customer bases?
  • What are the causes of the high degree of account inactivity in the target countries, and worldwide?
  • What are the most effective drivers of usage?
  • Which innovative approaches are most successful in stimulating account activity among financially disadvantaged people?
  • To what extent do different pricing models stimulate demand for financial services from banks?

From 2008 to 2016 WSBI already realised the

Doubling Savings Accounts programme.

  • 2.2 million new and active savings account customers;
  • More than 30,000 village groups linked up through mobile technology;
  • 2,250 service points connected digitally.

Scale2Save Logo

In collaboration with Mastercard Foundation

Scale2Save Logo

The Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper. The Foundation’s work is guided by its mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion for people living in poverty. One of the largest foundations in the world, it works almost exclusively in Africa. It was created in 2006 by Mastercard International and operates independently under the governance of its own Board of Directors. The Foundation is based in Toronto, Canada. For more information and to sign up for the Foundation’s newsletter, please visit mastercardfdn.org . Follow the Foundation at @MastercardFdn on Twitter.

Meet the people that make Scale2Save work.

Photo Weselina Angelow
Weselina Angelow
Programme Director
Photo Sean Brish
Sean Brish
Communications Adviser
Photo Agnès Fall
Agnès Fall
Technical Specialist
Photo Viviane Garceau
Viviane Garceau
Project Administrator
Photo Kimathi Githachuri
Kimathi Githachuri
Technical Specialist
Photo James Pieper
James Pieper
Communications Lead
Photo Apphia Ndungu
Apphia Ndungu
Programme Manager
Photo Céline Stevens
Céline Stevens
Programme Manager
01 / 08

Weselina Angelow

Programme Director

Weselina leads WSBI’s Scale2Save Initiative in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. Having managed and implemented large-scale financial inclusion and financial sector development programmes with WSBI and its Advisory Services for more than a decade across the globe, Weselina is part of WSBI’s worldwide efforts to provide an account for everyone and making a contribution to universal financial access. She manages WSBI’s learning agenda on small-scale savings where she places focus on understanding the viability of low-balance accounts, the drivers of account usage and factors that improve the financial health of underserved and low-income people. Prior to joining WSBI, Weselina worked with pixell, an Amadeus Leisure Group company in Germany, and in private sector development with GIZ – Germany's Agency for International Cooperation – in Chile. Weselina holds a Master in Economics and Social Sciences from Bonn University and an Executive Master in Responsible Banking from Instituto de Estudios Bursatiles in partnership with London School of Economics and WSBI.

WSBI Advisory Services
weseline.angelow@wsbi-as.org

02 / 08

Sean Brish

Communications Advisor

Sean helps with communications efforts for the programme, including social media. He also serves as a communications specialist in the communications department at WSBI. Before starting in that role this year, he was an assistant in the legal and regulatory affairs area at WSBI and sister organisation ESBG. Raised in California and Belgium, he is an expert in English and French, and studied translation at the University of Mons.

WSBI
sean.brish@wsbi-esbg.org

03 / 08

Agnès Fall

Local Technical Specialist (French-speaking countries)

With consultancy expertise in African countries, Agnes specialises in project management and leadership as well as IT strategy and management, especially core banking systems. With more than 28 years’ experience in ICT, network and telecommunication, she has gained extensive knowledge of corporate and retail banking infrastructure and uses her consultancy experience to manage partner relationships. From Senegal, her finance and banking knowledge centres on the microfinance banking sector in Africa. A senior IT consultant since 2014, she has performed services for organisations such as CGAP / World Bank Group. She previously worked for ACCION International as a vice president - programme manager for channels and technology in Africa. She began her career as an IT coordinator at AQUADEV.

Consultant
agneserfall@gmail.com

04 / 08

Viviane Garceau

Project Administrator

Viviane is in charge of the administration of the programme’s funds and resources that includes budgetary reviews, tracking of resource allocations as well as monitoring all expenses related to the Scale2Save Programme. She also ensures that all disbursements are in full compliance with the programme’s budgeting rules and policies for financial activities. Before joining WSBI in 2017, Viviane spent more than 10 years working as an office manager for a European lobbying association in the publishing sector. Prior to that, she also spent a few years working in the United States.

WSBI Advisory Services
viviane.garceau@wsbi-esbg.org

05 / 08

Kimathi Githachuri

Local Technical Specialist (English-speaking countries)

Kimathi is a digital financial services expert with more than 10 years’ experience in mass markets in Africa and Asia. He was part of the initial team that rolled out Safaricom’s M-PESA agent network in Kenya. He was also involved in the launch, and served until January 2016, as the first Head of The Helix Institute of Digital Finance. Prior to The Helix, Kimathi helped launch Warid Pesa as head of Mobile Money at Warid Telecom Uganda, and played a leading role in the product design and commercial roll-out of the first-ever national mobile-based tax-payment system in partnership with Uganda Revenue Authority [URA], Orient Bank Ltd and Equity Bank Uganda Ltd. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Business Administration at The University of Nairobi in Kenya and holds an MBA from the same university.

Consultant
kimathi@seven-delta.com

06 / 08

James Pieper

Senior Advisor, Communications

A 20-year banking communications veteran, James builds out communications and public outreach programmes that support the two Brussel-based associations’ financial inclusion and innovation programmes, among others. Prior to joining WSBI-ESBG, he managed communications projects at HSBC in Chicago and London. He started his public affairs career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In a previous life he was a beat reporter for the French daily paper Le Dauphiné Libéré. He studied economics at the University of Illinois-Chicago graduate school, received a master’s degree in managerial communications from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

WSBI
james.pieper@wsbi-esbg.org

07 / 08

Apphia Ndungu

Programme Managerr

Apphia Ndungu serves as a programme manager for Scale2Save projects in East Africa. An expert in cash-based programming and financial services, Aphia’s experience spans 15 years in programme management, design as well as implementation of cash transfer programmes in Africa. Prior to joining Scale2Save, she worked at Financial Sector Deepening Kenya as the government payments technical advisor while managing donor-funding. She also worked at MicroSave Consulting as a payments specialist on government payments for Zambia and India, evaluating government payment channels. At Equity Bank Limited, she managed the delivery of cash transfer programmes in Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan. Apphia received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nairobi.

WSBI Advisory Services
apphia.ndungu@wsbi-as.org

08 / 08

Céline Stevens

Programme Manager

Managing Scale2Save projects in Northern and Western African countries, Céline joined WSBI Advisory services in 2017 after serving in the EU Human Rights Defenders Mechanism as a finance officer. Prior to that she worked at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in finance and project administration management roles that took her to South Soudan, Haiti and Pakistan. Before then she was a product manager at PAB Benelux in Belgium. She studied finance at the Louvain School of Management in Belgium as well as management science from the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis in Brussels.

WSBI Advisory Services
celine.stevens@wsbi-as.org

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For questions about the programme, contact Scale2Save. Contact

Address:

Maria-Theresiastraat 11,
1000 Brussel
Belgium

Contact:

+322 211 11 11
scale2save@wsbi-esbg.org

Learnings

We are happy to share our expertise and insights with you.

Young People in Africa
Young People in Africa

Research showing opportunities for financial service providers in Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal.

Download Report EN Download Report FR
Annual report 2019
Annual report 2019

Savings and Retail Banking in Africa Results from 2019 WSBI member bank survey.

Download EN Download FR Annual Report 2018 Rapport annuel 2018 Related Story

Videos

Learn more with the latest videos about Scale2Save programme research, projects and peer exchange

Scale2Save research: Assessing financial diaries of young savers: Senegal insights - overview

Scale2Save research: What savings forms do youth in Senegal use? And why?

Scale2Save research: Young people in Senegal - How do they spend their money?

Scale2Save research: Young people in Senegal - What are their sources of income?

Opportunities and Challenges for Youth Financial Inclusion in Africa

Scale2Save: Kenya's PostBank project up close

Scale2Save: Peer Review Workshop in Kenya

Scale2Save: Al Barid Bank project in Morocco

Past events

Let’s look back on past meetings, conferences and other events.

2019
19 - 21 March 2019

First Scale2Save Peer Review Workshop.

Three day exchange among Scale2Save partners in Mombasa, Kenya. Explored programme projects and topics.

Details
2017
24 Nov 2017

2017 CGAP Customer Centricity Workshop

A half-day workshop that explored great customer experience. Some 20 particpants from WSBI member banks in all regions took part.

Details
12 Jul 2017

Scale2Save Workshop Abidjan

WSBI hosted an informational workshop in Abidjan for banks in the country to learn more about the Making Small Scale Savings Work program.

Details
2017
05 Apr 2017

ScaletoSave Workshop Lagos

A group of banking experts from Africa were invited by WSBI on 5 April Lagos, Nigeria to learn more about the new WSBI-Mastercard Foundation (MCF) partnership Scale2Save.

Details
22 March 2017

Scale2Save Workshop Dakar

Banking industry experts from Africa met in Sénégal to learn more about Scale2Save.

Details
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