About the Session
Digitalization is among the most powerful forces driving change in the financial services industry in Africa, as elsewhere. Widespread use of mobile technology is driving digital access on the continent, which now has more mobile subscribers than the United States or Europe. But digital transformation goes beyond mobile and works for some customers more than for others.

This session will showcase how three FSPs from the Scale2Save Program in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria have approached digitization to sharpen their competitive edge. We will apply a gender lens to the outcomes of their outreach strategies to highlight enabling and challenging factors for female customers:

KPOSB from Kenya will showcase how their digital group product supports rural savings groups in their financial management and how a digital ‘bank in a bag’ contributes to getting individual group members and grant recipients formally banked.
In Uganda instant signup features offered by Centenary Bank through peer-to-peer digital links are meant to attract women but for some shared agent channels really make a difference.
For LAPO Microfinance Bank in Nigeria, newly established agents opened up opportunities for some female micro-merchants, but non-digital field officers turned out to be the real sales force.
Taking the different experiences into account, the session will also discuss the need for a more segmented approach to tackle the digital gap for women and how better data and skillset building will improve inclusion for different groups of women