UNCDF’s MicroLead programme team is proud to introduce its newest case study: Protecting Savings Groups Reached Through High-Tech Channels: Guidance from the New Client Protection Principles for a Digital Savings Product.

Despite what now appears to be ubiquitous acceptance and excitement that the world’s poor are or soon will be transacting financially through their mobile phones, digital finance, and in particular digital savings, is still relatively new. For countries like Burkina Faso, there is still significant ground to cover in digital financial services. The promise of digital services is significant for the rural unbanked in Burkina Faso. However, there are very few clear-cut best practices for designing these services. There are even fewer best practices when designing for client protection.

This MicroLead case study, utilizing experience from Freedom from Hunger’s Bridge to Financial Inclusion project based in Burkina Faso, highlights the experiences of integrating client protection principles – the minimum standards microfinance clients should expect – into the initial design and roll-out of a digital savings product designed for savings groups.

You can download this case study and others from MicroLead partners free here: https://www.uncdf.org/microlead/cases.

For more information on the MicroLead programme, please visit www.uncdf.org/microlead.

About MicroLead

MicroLead is a joint initiative of UNCDF and Mastercard Foundation challenging regulated FSPs to develop and roll-out deposit services which respond to the rural vacuum of services. With additional support of the Bill & Melinda Gates 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.
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