Supporting Financial Well-Being of Vulnerable Youth & Women

According to the 2021 Findex data, despite major progress in the past 10 years, still, 29% of the adult population in developing countries do not have access to an account at a bank or regulated institution such as a credit union, microfinance institution, or a mobile money service provider. About half of the unbanked people included women and poor households in rural areas or out of the workforce. According to Standard & Poor research, while in 2016 on a global level, 75% of those who had access to such services, lacked the confidence and knowledge to use them adequately. When looking closer, such inequalities are even more prominent for populations: 1) living in low-income countries such as in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa; 2) for women and youth. 

Financial well-being remains low in most countries even though it is beefed up by OECD countries. In 2021, according to the OECD, the financial well-being average score of all the participants is below 50% of the maximum. According to the Global Findex 2021, 63% of adults in developing economies are very worried about one or more common financial expenses; against 33% in high-income economies. Only about 5% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are not worried at all by any financial issues and about 10% in the Middle East and North Africa, making those 2 geographical areas amongst the top 3 areas with the largest proportion of adults worrying about financial issues. 

According to the same source, women are also slightly more worried about money issues than men on average and more specifically in such countries. Among OECD countries (where financial well-being and financial literacy is already higher), young people (aged 18-29) have lower financial literacy and financial attitude scores than the rest of the sample consistently and significantly. They also tend to have lower financial knowledge and less prudent financial behaviour.

However, financial stress, financial resilience (the ability to deal with an unexpected financial event) and level of confidence in using financial resources are factors of well-being, one of the UN's SDGs. Research suggests that communities with better financial literacy live prosperous and happy lives. Contrary to that, a lack of financial literacy and financial stress can lead to over-indebtedness, repeated cycles of poverty and even deteriorating health and mental health conditions. This, in turn, can ripple effect on national competitiveness and economic development. Which is even more important for such countries striving for economic development!

Fiinafas a specialised coaching solution, that unlocks the potential of vulnerable youth and women in Africa and the Middle East to reach their financial well-being through partnering with local organisations that work with targeted beneficiaries. Fiinafas offers then 3 different solutions to best integrate financial well-being into local organisations capacities:

1. Propose a financial well-being coaching solution

2. Develop impactful and innovative financial well-being content and approaches

3. Access reliable, independent and at large-scale financial well-being data

The coaching solution (1) is a personalised user-friendly platform through which youth and women from vulnerable communities are coached via digital, easy-to-use and engaging content, while interacting with local coaches they know and trust to learn how to build their financial well-being. This platform and the service provided also supports local organisations to better assess and help those youth and women to become financially healthier and stronger. The coaching solution will be integrated in a more holistic methodology that starts with an initial thorough diagnostic, then includes group sessions as well as individual physical coaching sessions. The length of the journey will vary based on the motivation of the user, the offer chosen by his.her local organisation and the expected impact. Specific approaches will be developed for youth on one-end and for women on the other-end. For women for instance, awareness raising sessions with men and couples will also be organised for instance.

The development of relevant financial well-being approaches (2) supports integrating more impactful and innovative initiatives for organisations that already have financial education initiatives. This is done through an audit & quality control  (effectiveness, innovation, impact) of training and content, the development of innovative and impactful training approaches using recognised best practices, the revision or development of relevant content, training of internal staff to become leading experts in financial education and the access to an impact tracking solution linked to international and national frameworks.

Finally, Fiinafas also provides reliable, independent and large-scale financial well-being data (3) for decision-makers, public institutions (Ministries, Central Banks, etc.), and research institutes via access to anonymised financial behaviours indicators and supports the development of relevant national financial education strategies.

Fiinafas is first addressed to local organisations and decision-makers that are challenged in addressing the financial issues of youth and women from vulnerable communities. Through them, Fiinafas’ end-targets are youth and women from those vulnerable communities in Africa and the Middle East that are affected by multi-dimensional inequalities. 

As a start, Fiinafas supports 3 types of organisations and decision-makers. First Fiinafas supports NGOs, local CSOs, and microfinance institutions that work with youth and women that face financial issues but don’t have the internal capacity to support them to have access to a tailored and personalised coaching solution. The solution supports them in learning how to reach financial well-being while building local capacity. The second segment is represented by organisations that already have financial education content but no internal dedicated capacity. Fiinafas offers embedded innovative and qualitative financial education approaches leading to sound financial behaviours. The third segment is represented by decision-makers, public institutions (Ministries, Central Banks, etc.), research institutes, universities, multilateral organisations or global banking institutions that want to have access to large-scale data on financial behaviours and report against their financial education strategies and M&E frameworks. This data will be collected and consolidated through the coaching and training programmes implemented with local organisations and can be described as a bottom-up approach to report to national and international financial education strategies.

Finally, Fiinafas aims at supporting the lives of youth and women from vulnerable communities that are usually excluded from information and training programmes as well as suffer from multi-dimensional inequalities: social, economic, psychological, financial, and health-related. 

Women in Africa and the Middle East suffer from a lack of access to economic capital as well as a lack of self-confidence in handling money and finances. 

Youth also are specifically affected by a lack of self-confidence at a time when they need to invest in their future and were not given the right tools to do so. 

Fiinafas will design specific approaches for women on one end and for youth on the other end to support them in building their confidence and their skills towards financial well-being. Fiinafas will for instance track how they manage to achieve their objectives, manage to make ends meet, be more in control of their debts, find relevant and sustainable financial resources and recourse if needs be, etc. 

The team includes a diverse and complementary group of experts in financial capability, financial inclusion, digital tools, start-ups, impact investing, and human-centered design. Our team combines +20 years of experience working and operating in Africa and in the Middle East, working for NGOs, venture-builders, investors and international organisations.  

More specifically, the Founder, Chloe Jacquin, is specialised in developing financial education curricula, digital learning solutions using human-centered approaches. She has trained 300+ entrepreneurs and 100+ trainers on financial capability in the Middle East and Africa. She is also involved in financial education working groups with the European Microfinance Network or the International Network for Financial Education from the OECD and has worked on national strategies on financial education in Seychelles and South Africa for the poorest communities. Even though based out of France for now, she used to live in South Africa and Lebanon and she travels very often to Africa and the Middle East to understand better the needs of such communities. She is aiming at partnering with a woman and/or youth from one of countries reached to fully complement the team and be closer to the communities that Fiinafas serves.

The team is also completed by an Advisory Board composed by Dani Ibrahim and Aurelia Fah. Dani Ibrahim has 15+ years of relevant industry experience in coaching trainers on entrepreneurship, being himself a serial entrepreneur. He is highly regarded in the Middle East by microfinance institutions and national stakeholders in the sector. Aurelia Fah has 12+ years of impact investment experience across Africa working and supporting financial institutions including microfinance institutions and fintechs in their ambitions to scale and solve their key strategic, financial and operational challenges. Over the past year, she developed a financial digital solution to provide credits to micro-entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

The rest of the team will grow organically based on the success of Fiinafas. Fiinafas draws from a wide network of 50+ experts experienced in financial capability, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, gender empowerment, youth empowerment, tech, training and coaching, innovative educational approaches, behavioural sciences, policy-making and national strategies and in the Middle East, North Africa, Western Africa and Southern Africa.

Some solutions and products have already been tested and hence could fall under the "Prototype" or the "Pilot" category. Fiinafas is indeed currently building and testing its service through 3 projects with 7 organisations. The services and products developed within the context of those projects confirm that Fiinafas needs to prototype improved services. Hence Fiinafas falls more into the "Prototype" category.

The first project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is implemented with one partner based out of South Africa, SaveAct, which provides secure socially-mediated savings groups with over 110 000 members in the country. Fiinafas works closely for this project with universities and research organisations: King's College, University of Lausanne, IPA (Innovation Poverty Action) in Colombia, University of Cape Town; as well as a well-renowned CSO in South Africa, Waves for Change. Fiinafas targets youths and their parents from whom financial education training is being developed in South Africa, Colombia and Nepal. 

The second project is implemented with PPI, Power People Inclusion, and focuses on supporting the implementation of a digital-based entrepreneurship solution in Lebanon. The team experienced a similar approach and context and gained experience through this project. Another local partner is in turn supported.

The third project is implemented with PPI, Power People Inclusion, focusing on developing a national financial education curriculum in Cote d'Ivoire.

Fiinafas is currently serving and testing its solution with 3 projects with 7 organisations and 80 youths and 110 adults and indirectly, about around 15 million people in Cote d'Ivoire.

The first project implemented in South Africa, Colombia and Nepal, Fiinafas targets 60 youths and their parents. 

The second project implemented with PPI in Lebanon targets 20 youths and 50 adults.

The third project implemented with PPI targets a much broader target audience as it aims at most of the adult population, so about 15 million people.

As Fiinafas is building a solution that will ultimately benefit the youth and women from vulnerable populations, Fiinafas will involve working with a multitude of stakeholders including local organisations (CSOs or NGOs), financial service providers, national or regional support programs, Government entities or research institutes and universities. Fiinafas will then highly benefit from experience from similar Solvers working with a variety of stakeholders and the MIT experience in this.

The solution involves using machine learning, audiovisual content, geo-mapping technology and pedagogical approaches. Solvers with strong relevant technical expertise and existing experience working with similar targeted population segments and within comparable environments can share their knowledge and practical experience, expected risks, common challenges, areas of opportunities and most importantly, tested approaches and solutions that can be integrated. The widely-recognised expertise of MIT in applying technology to socially local-oriented solutions is a great asset for Fiinafas that highly needs this skill. Fiinafas is currently actively looking at building a more coherent technology-based solution that can be engaging, light and fun for its users. With the additional challenge of low literacy skills. Technical expertise is one of the most important reasons for Fiinafas to apply to this challenge! As an addition, the grant received under the MIT Solve could support the development of the tech solution but this is clearly not the main argument. 

Legal matters can be complex and involve different jurisdictions especially as the Founder is based out of France, starts working in South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and Lebanon with other prospects in similar countries as well as Tunisia, Senegal or Morocco. Hence, Fiinafas would highly benefit from legal advice on setting up an impactful and socially responsible structure that operates in several countries across Africa and the Middle East. Fiinafas is at the crossroads now of operating between a solely commercial business model and an hybrid model and thus would benefit from expert guidance. 

Equally important being accepted as a Solver reflects the recognition and being a member of such a vibrant and highly renowned group of talents represents a testimony that the solution has merits. The directions and mentorship that prospective board members can give and the connections they could give access to, will enable healthy growth and scale up. This will be also supported by media exposure and marketing opportunities. 

Finally, Fiinafas is also applying to the MIT Solve challenge to receive leadership coaching and strategic advice from other Solvers and MIT networks. Being a woman, I, the Founder, recognise a multiplicity of biases that I face on the road to entrepreneurship: imposteur syndrome, syndrome of being the good girl, perfectionism, lack of self-confidence to name a few. I am also looking at creating a real social structure where decision-power can be shared and more democratic, inspired from the social and solidarity economy. For this, I need guidance as well as looking for the right partners. I hope to find potential relevant partners and guidance under the MIT Challenge.

Across its three offers, Fiinafas’ solution is a multi-pronged innovation. 

Fiinafas’ first solution (coaching platform) represents a real experience innovation for its users: from process automation (integrating an initial diagnostic with a coaching platform that chooses the subsequent relevant journey for the user), to enabling the experience of having access to personalised specific and fun content in one’s pocket in their own language as well as enhancing a sense of belonging to a community, Fiinafas will highly rely on technology (mobile applications and algorithms and eventually later on Artificial Intelligence). For local organisations, this solution is also a real-added value to their current offerings (providing social-oriented services) with total experience management and a real structure innovation, as personalised financial well-being advisory gets addressed and outsourced to an experienced service provider. This solution has indirect competitors: networks of financial advisors/ financial coaches or digital financial learning platforms but no blended (digital and physical) coaching platforms have been discovered so far that also integrate a thorough financial well-being diagnostic. For instance, Blackbullion in English-speaking countries, including South Africa, is an interesting indirect competitor or Kajou in Western Africa.

Secondly, the development of financial well-being approaches integrated into local organisations has more direct competitors such as CARE, Freedom from Hunger, Microfinance Opportunities or CAWTAR. However, most of them do not focus on designing approaches based on behavioural sciences and nudges and tend to focus more on changing knowledge and skills as opposed to changing behaviours. Most importantly as well, those that propose nudging initiatives such as Nudge-Global tend to operate in higher-income countries with top-notch and costly approaches. Fiinafas provides a real service innovation: it offers superior, personalised, context-specific services with total experience management (from auditing to tracking impact). By integrating organisations that could be competitors and joining forces, Fiinafas brings forward also a configuration innovation.

Lastly, consolidation of financial well-being data is done at the regulators’ or research institutes’ level but not coherently from one country or entity to another. The INFE from the OECD or the World Bank with the Global Findex could be the right platforms for this but they do not gather and consolidate ongoing data from practitioners. So far, no specific platform to consolidate financial education and financial well-being data has been discovered in one country or even multiple countries. Only the CAWTAR in Tunisia, working for the Central Bank of Tunisia with their financial inclusion platform could come to be a close competitor (on one country level only). Fiinafas is exploring a partnership with them.

Hence Fiinafas solution is a disruptive innovation in itself as parts of its solution do exist but no exact same solution has been discovered so far.   

By the end of 2023, Fiinafas’ objective in terms of impact is that Fiinafas' impact indicators are clear. Fiinafas’ core operating model relies on impact and more specifically on “financial well-being”. This will be further unpacked in 2023 with the support received and still being received by Impact Cube. Two versions of the definition of "financial well-being" have been drafted so far, leveraging international and national frameworks. This needs quite significant time as no consistent and coherent framework does exist yet.

Fiinafas aims at achieving the following in the coming 5 years: Fiinafas is used in 5 countries and has reached 10,000 youth and women who have improved their financial well-being by 20%. Thus, Fiinafas’ objective by the end of 2024 is that it is used in 1 country and has reached 2,000 youth and women who have improved their financial well-being by 10% with the first recruitment. 

Noting that the above stems from Fiinafas’ long-term goal for the end of 2043, which is that the youth's and women's poverty gap in the Middle East and Africa has drastically reduced and they are more financially stable.

Fiinafas participated in a 6-week bootcamp to scope its impact including its Theory of Change. It was then that Fiinafas defined two different sets of indicators frameworks: the first set relates to the Operating Model and the second one relates to the Outcomes/ Business model. 

Related to the Operating Model, Fiinafas will evaluate its operations every 2 years based on existing methodologies: ESUS certification, B-Corp certification or Impact Score in France https://impactntechscore.impactscore.fr/. 

Related to Outcomes/ Business model, Fiinafas will operate according to two different timeframes. First, Fiinafas will evaluate broader and more ‘transversal’ indicators such as those from the SDGs or the SROI every 2 years. Then, Fiinafas will define its own indicators specific to financial well-being related to international and national frameworks such as the one from the OECD/INFE or the one from the World Bank. Such indicators are the basis against which the progress of beneficiaries will be measured. The petals of the logo Fiinafas actually embody the 8 dimensions of financial well-being that will be assessed through the work with local organisations.

Please see here the overall strategy for Fiinafas in the coming years:

As shown here, impact indicators are definitely part of Fiinafas' core business model and are tracked over time as the evaluation of progress in financial well-being is the cornerstone of Fiinafas. And how this strategy is getting implemented and tracked for 2023:

Fiinafas has in its core business and operating model measuring impact. This is still in progress but significant progress has been made so far to make sure that impact is well-tracked.

As described above, Fiinafas relies on several sets of indicators. Please find below the sets of indicators that Fiinafas is aiming at reporting against. The frequency of evaluation and tracking is different depending on the source of indicators. Fiinafas aims at tracking some indicators every 2 years and some on a regular basis. Also, the date from which Fiinafas will track different indicators will change according to the legal requirements (for instance, Fiinafas will need to get the ESUS agreement under French Law before reporting to this framework of indicators). Most of Fiinafas’ internal tools have to be created or sourced.

To illustrate the work currently underway, please see below a drafted list of indicators that Fiinafas will track based on the different levels of the Theory of Change (Outputs, Outcomes, Impact). 

• Regarding impact, for instance, Fiinafas has selected a couple of indicators from the UN SDGs that are relevant to track impact. Some of those indicators as the “Proportion of adults (15 years and older) with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider” will be tracked at a baseline (when starting an intervention with users/ beneficiaries) and then 12 months after the intervention is completed. Those indicators are close to Fiinafas’ core operating business and hence need more frequent monitoring. Other indicators such as the “Proportion of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy skills, by sex” are slightly farther from Fiinafas’ core activities and thence will be tracked only every 2 years.

• Outcomes: outcomes indicators should be tracked on a more regular basis - at the baseline, endline, 6 months after the endline and then 12 months later. The initial diagnostic (the MVP shared above) is the tool that will be used to track progress. Here, indicators such as “draw a budget” will be tracked and beneficiaries will be able to see their progress over time. In the course of their coaching journey, this indicator will also be assessed by the coaching platform and their local coach based on how they feed the platform with information. 

• Outputs: those will be tracked on a monthly basis to ensure that Fiinafas meets its objectives, and assure quality of its services. For instance, the “drop-out rate on the coaching platform” will be tracked on a monthly basis. 

Fiinafas unlocks the potential of vulnerable youth and women to reach their financial well-being in Africa and the Middle East via a blended coaching platform and the development of impactful and innovative financial well-being approaches for local organisations. 

To do so, Fiinafas has one full-time staff, 2 volunteers, a network of 20+ international experts, previously designed materials from different countries in Africa, MENA and other countries, a large library of research and reference documents on financial education, financial well-being, financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, network of potential partners from financial institutions, local CSOs, foundations, bilateral organisations to universities and institutional organisations. 

Fiinafas will then (for each solution):

Coaching platform:

• Activities: Provide a full-on diagnostic and blended coaching platform with inspiring and engaging content guided by behavioural insights and train local coaches to use the platform

• Outputs: youth and women are coached, one coaching platform is to be developed and one diagnostic, one coaching approach for youth and one for women to be developed, two training courses (one for youth, one for women) of coaches are developed

• Outcomes: youth and women improve their financial attitudes/ knowledge and behaviours, local coaches improve their financial literacy, local organisations attract more funding, local organisations operate better (they now address an issue they could not address and their beneficiaries and staff are capacitated), local financial institutions improve their repayment rates and expand their clients’ base

• Impact: youth and women improve their financial well-being, local coaches improve their financial well-being, local organisations are more stable, local financial institutions are more stable and provide financial services to more vulnerable youth and women

Development of impactful and innovative financial well-being approaches:

• Activities: Audit & assess existing content and approaches in financial education, train staff to become experts, define impactful and innovative financial well-being approaches and provide relevant content

• Outputs: youth and women are trained or coached, audit & assessment are conducted, staff are trained and monitored, impactful and innovative financial well-being approaches are defined, curricula are revised/ developed

• Outcomes: youth and women improve their financial attitudes/ knowledge and behaviours, local staff improve their financial literacy expertise, local organisations attract more funding, local organisations operate better (they now have access to better tracking tools and content), local financial institutions improve their repayment rates and expand their clients’ base

• Impact: youth and women improve their financial well-being, local coaches improve their financial well-being, local organisations are more stable, local financial institutions are more stable and provide financial services to more vulnerable youth and women,

Provide high-level data on financial well-being

• Activities: Provide access to a database of indicators on financial well-being, support the definition of financial education strategies

• Outputs: one database of financial well-being indicators is developed, regulators in several countries access data on financial well-being,

• Outcomes: regulators report their financial education strategies, financial education strategies monitoring & evaluation frameworks are tracked, financial education strategies are revised,

• Impact: local organisations are supported to provide better financial well-being services, contribute to more stable national economic development and economic growth

• 

  
  

Fiinafas will highly rely on technology (mobile applications and algorithms and eventually later on Artificial Intelligence.

This highly needs to be developed and needs further experienced guidance from relevant experts: product engineers, customer experience experts, mobile applications developers, etc.

Fiinafas is not recruiting yet and may not be able to recruit until the end of 2023. However, diversity, equity and inclusivity are very important for Fiinafas. First, Fiinafas targets populations that are usually excluded from financial training, resources or supporting services. It also targets women in Africa and the Middle East that are affected by unequal access to economic and social capital. Equity and inclusivity are at the core of Fiinafas’ mission. Fiinafas will also be looking for partners that will develop specific approaches for women and youth that are affected by disabilities as well.

In the selection of its partners, Fiinafas is currently thinking of adding some criteria on diversity and inclusivity of the team to make sure that most of the usually discriminated populations are well represented.

Fiinafas is first addressed to local organisations and decision-makers that are challenged in addressing the financial issues of youth and women from vulnerable communities. They are the direct clients. Through them, Fiinafas’ end-targets are youth and women from those vulnerable communities in Africa and the Middle East that are affected by multi-dimensional inequalities. Youth and women are beneficiaries of the solution. Fiinafas supports 3 types of organisations and decision-makers. 

First Fiinafas supports NGOs, local CSOs, and microfinance institutions that work with youth and women that face financial issues but don’t have the internal capacity to support them with dealing with such issues. Such organisations are faced with youth and women, and sometimes their own staff, who are over-indebted, worried by their financial issues, are not sure how they will meet their daily needs and are sometimes even depressed. This can then lead to absenteeism to their own activities, drop-outs, bad quality of service delivered, and difficulty to retain staff. The solution supports such organisations ensuring that youth and women are more committed to the service they provide, maximise their impact, as well as improve the quality of their services. In turn, it is also a great opportunity for them to raise additional funding when offering a more holistic and impactful service to their beneficiaries. Fiinafas provides them with an externalised service that is integrated into their core activities and improves their impact as well as operations.  

The second segment is represented by organisations that already have financial education content but no internal dedicated capacity. Fiinafas offers them embedded innovative and qualitative financial education approaches leading to sound financial behaviours. They need support in developing new adapted content, new approaches for new target audiences, and training their staff in relevant financial well-being approaches. Furthermore, they need to ensure that they remain very competitive in the financial education initiatives they propose to their beneficiaries. For this, they need to implement innovative research, evidence-based and impactful programmes. As they usually do not have the internal capacity and thus resources to look for, design and test new approaches, Fiinafas will support them in keeping abreast of best practices and initiatives. Fiinafas will also be a great addition to them to raise funds by improving the quality as well as impact assessment of their existing activities. 

The third segment is represented by decision-makers, public institutions (Ministries, Central Banks, etc.), research institutes, universities, multilateral organisations or global banking institutions that want to have access to large-scale data on financial behaviours and report against their financial education strategies and M&E frameworks.

Fiinafas proposes 3 different offers to best integrate financial well-being into local organisations' capacities:

1. Propose a financial well-being coaching solution

2. Develop impactful and innovative financial well-being content and approaches

3. Access reliable, independent and large-scale financial well-being data

The 2 first offers are critical to be able to offer the 3rd one, targeting Governments, decision-makers and research institutes and centres. Hence, Fiinafas will focus on the 3rd offer only in the medium term.

Offer 1, the tech and interaction-based financial well-being coaching solution, is structured as a fee-for-service model as well as a service subsidisation model. This is still being assessed and under research. What is being tested for now is that local organisations access the platform with a flat fee and a discounted price for a certain number of users. Such organisations usually struggle with funding their own core operating expenses and hence it is important to keep running costs low. They should be able to access this service via grant funding and then for free for basic content. Then, if they wish to have access to more advanced content and innovations, there will be a fee. The exact timing and terms of payment are still being assessed. Because there will also be the training of staff and integration of this offer into their current operations, this is also a service subsidisation model. Would they wish that additional training is delivered to staff, this will be additional costs. 

Offer 2 is structured as a service subsidisation model. Fiinafas sells its services to organisations already having financial education programmes. Such services include audit & quality control (effectiveness, innovation, impact) of training and content, the development of innovative and impactful training approaches using recognised best practices, the revision or development of relevant content, training of internal staff to become leading experts in financial education. Such services will be directly integrated into the existing operations of the local organisations as it will build the capacity of such organisations.

Those organisations will also be offered to have access to an impact-tracking solution linked to international and national frameworks. This platform is directly linked to offer 3. This will be either based on a fee-for-service model as there will be a fee linked to accessing the platform or directly integrated into their services and funded by grants from offer 3 targets. This is still being assessed. 

Because offer 1 and offer 2 complement their existing offers either by providing a more holistic service to their end-beneficiaries or by improving their current services, those offers are services that help them access renewed or new sources of funding. Thus offers 1 and 2 can also be considered market intermediary solutions. Hence, the running costs of services will be kept low, focusing mostly on once-off costs and entry costs when local organisations can request funding/ grants for accessing the services.

The offer 3 business model is not the priority for now. It is expected to be based on a fee-for-service model but this will be further explored.

Fiinafas is currently serving and testing its solution with 3 projects with 7 organisations. 

The first project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is implemented with one partner based out of South Africa, SaveAct. Fiinafas works closely for this project with universities and research organisations: King's College, University of Lausanne, IPA (Innovation Poverty Action) in Colombia, University of Cape Town; as well as a well-renowned CSO in South Africa, Waves for Change. 

The second project is implemented with PPI, Power People Inclusion, for which the team experiences a similar approach and context and gains experience through this project. Another local partner, The Hope Center, is in turn supported.

The third project is implemented with PPI, Power People Inclusion, focusing on developing a national financial education curriculum in Cote d'Ivoire is funded by the APIF, the Agency of Financial Inclusion in Cote d’Ivoire. 

Projects are currently being evaluated:

• In South Africa, by the DG Murray Trust with the local partners SaveAct and Waves for Change

• In 5 countries in the Middle East by the European Union with PPI, Power People Inclusion, in consortium with Enabel, the first and only regional network designed to service microfinance institutions in the Arab world, Bond’innov

Partnerships are being explored with the CAWTAR in Tunisia and operating in the Middle East. 

Services will soon be proposed to PPI as well the IFAID, training center in development initiatives in France.