Turn on more accessible mode
Turn off more accessible mode
Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Turn off Animations
Turn on Animations
Sign In

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

12 innovative projects

Timeframe

6 years
Sep 2016 to Aug 2022

Latest news

Stay up-to-date with the latest news.

Article picture 1
Article picture 2
Article picture 3
More news

Learnings

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

Annual report 2019
Annual series

State of the Sector Case Study 2021: Mobile Solutions EN │FR

State of the Sector Case Study 2020: Covid-19 Impact EN │FR

State of the Sector Report 2019 EN │FR

State of the Sector Report 2018 EN │FR

Young People in Africa
Young People in Africa

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

Download Report EN │FR

Young people in Africa Research Video Series

The Programme

Scale2Save is
all about micro savings, maximum impact.

Logo WSBI
Logo Mastercard Foundation

How does it work?

A six-year partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and WSBI, Scale2Save is a programme to establish the viability of low-balance savings accounts and to understand the extent to which savings allow vulnerable people to boost their financial resilience and wellbeing.

Programme work is anchored by developing viable business models with a broad mix of financial service providers that create high-usage cases that widen financial inclusion. This occurs by improving the quality of savings, alternative distribution channels and the financial service offer in general. Scale2Save balances project work with research conducted and shared among partner banks and the wider sector.

Scale2Save empowers partner FSPs to become savings-driven, customer-centric institutions by adding value to all stakeholders along the service value chain. That means weaving programme aims into the fabric of partner bank strategies, encouraging needed culture change within their organisations while fostering a continuous learning environment for people working within them.

​​Changing ​the banking model in Africa​.

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

Joined by 12 financial service providers (FSPs), shared learning helps the programme test customer-centric solutions that address barriers faced by low-income, underserved and unbanked people via convenient and affordable access to formal savings in six countries across Africa.

Barid Cash Al Barid Bank Cofina Advans FCMB LAPO Kenya Postbank FINCA FINCA Uganda BRAC Postbank Uganda Centenary Bank

Scale2Save is a learning programme

Research with partner institutions and customers inform project interventions.

9 learning questions guide us throughout the entire process:

How and to what extent do savings allow customer to increase financial resilience?

What constitutes a viable business model for small scale savings?

To what extent do different groups of young people comprise an untapped market, and how can FSPs engage with these groups so that they can be better served?

What is the value proposition and the right marketing mix (7Ps) for particular segments of financially disadvantaged people (young people 15-30 yrs, farmers, economically active women & young mothers, social grant recipients)?

What services do different groups of customers value, prioritize and need, and why do they need these services?

How does the institutional model affect the ability to offer low balance savings services to the financially excluded?

How and to what extent does institutional change improve the service offer in small scale savings?

What are the external factors that block or facilitate financial service providers’ outreach strategies?

What are the external factors that block or facilitate customers from using financial services’?

Financial inclusion is featured as a target in eight Sustainable Development Goals.

Why is this important?

People may boost their well-being when they have access and make use of savings mechanisms like a basic account.

WSBI's journey in encouraging effective and inclusive savings

Early 2000:WSBI's research 'Perspectives' lay out global barriers to access to finance and explain how the savings and retail banking network help overcome them.

The Provision of Microfinance Services by Savings Banks Acces to Finance SAVINGS BANKS AND THE DOUBLE BOTTOM-LINE WHO ARE THE CLIENTS OF SAVINGS BANKS?

Main achievement: 1.3 billion accounts were offered globally through the WSBI network at the time.

2008: Doubling Savings Accounts programme:a seven-year global partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to drive massive outreach in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Main achievement: 2.2 million new and active savings account customers with 4.5 million savers reached;
More than 30,000 village groups linked up through mobile technology;
2,250 service points connected digitally.

2015: WSBI becomes a coalition partner of the Worldbank Group’s Universal Financial Access Agenda (UFA 2020) committing to 400 million new transaction accounts through the WSBI network.

Main achievement: WSBI achieves its UFA commitment in 2018 with 1.733 billion accounts.

2016: Scale2Save starts operating as a six-year partnership with the Mastercard Foundation in six countries in Africa to drive customer centric solutions for 1 million customers and becomes a partner in the Mastercard Foundation Savings Learning Lab led by Itad.

2018: Scale2Save launches its annual ‘State of the Savings and Retail Banking sector in Africa’ research series to look at the quality of savings and causes of account inactivity and dormancy.

2020: Sacle2Save starts looking at better metrics for savings as part of the e-MfP led action group.

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 Laurie Dufays
Laurie Dufays
Change Management Lead
Photo Agnès Fall
Agnès Fall
Technical Specialist
Photo Viviane Garceau
Viviane Garceau
Project Administrator
Photo Kimathi Githachuri
Kimathi Githachuri
Technical Specialist
Photo Apphia Ndungu
Apphia Ndungu
Programme Manager
Photo Céline Stevens
Céline Stevens
Programme Manager
01 / 07

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. 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
weseline.angelow@wsbi-esbg.org

02 / 07

Laurie Dufays

Change Management Lead

Laurie currently manages the membership and stakeholder relations of WSBI’s Africa region. She works with Chantal Vander Vorst from Detox and Grow! and Miguel de Clerck, an independent consultant, on the deployment and implementation of Scale2Save’s change management programme within partner banks. Laurie has 30 years of experience in inclusive retail banking with a focus on human resources and an international exposure in Africa, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America. She has extensive experience in helping financial institutions define strategic goals, undergo a digital transformation and design customer-centric offers for lower income segments. A trained coach, Laurie creates and provides international training programmes in banking and management, as well as executive coaching on change management, communication and teamwork.

WSBI
Laurie Dufays
Chantal Vander Vorst
Miguel de Clerck

03 / 07

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 / 07

Viviane Garceau

Programme Finances and Events Officer

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
viviane.garceau@wsbi-esbg.org

05 / 07

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 / 07

Apphia Ndungu

Programme Manager

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
apphia.ndungu@wsbi-esbg.org

07 / 07

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
celine.stevens@wsbi-esbg.org

For questions about the programme, contact Scale2Save. Contact

Address:

Maria-Theresiastraat 11,
1000 Brussel
Belgium

Contact:

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

Page Content