From July 2017 to January 2018, Ivana Damjanov of MicroLead, a joint initiative of UNCDF and the Mastercard Foundation, is leading a SEEP Network peer-learning group (PLG) on improving access to finance for savings group members. The PLG was formed to help different agencies – NGOs, Banks, MNOs, financial service providers (FSPs) and others – come together and discuss their successes and challenges in linking savings groups to much-needed formal financial services.

Through a series of in-person and virtual meetings, PLG members and participants have focused on how best to find out about their customers’ experiences in linking, as well as the potential mechanisms for bridging the gap between service providers and groups. PLG members have led virtual meetings on their own models, presenting their own successes and challenges, so that participants are able to learn from each other and offer advice on issues they face.

Guest speakers have also contributed to group meetings, offering new information on tools and approaches to strengthen PLG members’ products and services. 17triggers, a Cambodia-based behavior change lab, presented the 17triggers methodology on Customer Journey Mapping, a tool that has been used by multiple participants to better understand the headaches PLG members’ clients face when linking their own groups to financial service providers. To strengthen agent networks, Veena Krishnamoorthy of MicroSave and Ntaja Ntandaza of NBS Bank explained the process of developing such a network in Malawi, along with a toolkit designed under UNCDF MicroLead to help other providers in their own efforts.

Learnings from the group meetings have yielded a wealth of lessons and advice from members. These learnings will be compiled in a final deliverable including the experience of all members, and will be published by SEEP in January 2018 for the wider stakeholder community. This will allow organizations and providers from other contexts to benefit from the PLG’s work, which has been valuable for participants. “I have been applying many of the lessons learned from the group to improve our own products and relationships with clients,” stated Gerald Nyakwawa of EcoNet Zimbabwe.

Members of the group include Gerald M. Nyakwawa of EcoNet Zimbabwe, Michael Maggebo of NMB Bank (Tanzania), Clement Bisai of CARE Malawi, Esther Ssenoga of Uganda Postal Bank, Naveed Somani of OPM, and Peter Mwihaki of Equity Bank Kenya. The group is facilitated by Ivana Damjanov of UNCDF Tanzania, with support from Jessica Massie (Rwanda), and Fabiola Diaz and Briana Fierro of SEEP. Participants from UNCDF will present a session focusing on savings groups and sustainable models at the SEEP Network Savings Group Conference in Kigali Rwanda in May 2018.

About MicroLead
MicroLead is a UNCDF programme which challenges regulated FSPs to develop and roll-out deposit services which respond to the rural vacuum of services. With the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation and the LIFT Fund in Myanmar, MicroLead works with a variety of FSPs and technical service providers to reach rural markets, particularly women, with demand-driven, responsibly priced products offered via alternative delivery channels such as rural agents, mobile phones, roving agents, point of sales devices and group linkages. This is combined with financial education, so customers not only have access but can effectively use quality services.