In The Gambia, only 19% of the population are using formal financial products and services. Enhancing access to services such as loans, insurance and savings through digital means is integral in building the foundations of a digital economy that includes women and youth in many countries, especially The Gambia.

The Jobs, Skills and Ffinance (JSF) for women and youth programme, funded by the European Union, aims at fostering inclusive and sustainable growth and employment in The Gambia. It does this by creating job opportunities for youth and women through green investments delivered through performance-based climate resilience grants (LoCAL). On the side of these jobs, the programme works to improve opportunities in education and skills development for these vulnerable segments. Furthermore, it aims at increasing access to finance for youth and women and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises while strengthening the local financial sector more widely.

To bridge the financial inclusion gap, UNCDF launched in 2021, a Fintech Challenge in The Gambia to scale up digital solutions for youth and women. Under this challenge, MaTontine, a Senegalese digital financial service platform (MaTontine FlaaS Platform), was selected to digitalize traditional savings groups.

“Accelerating the digital transformation is key for The Gambia to boost its economy. A digital transformation which includes digital services such as the one offered by MaTontine, will increase opportunities for women’s businesses and help address gender inequalities in The Gambia” Lumana Kamashi, Development CooperationProgramme Manager/ International Aid OfficeDevelopment Cooperation, Delegation of The European Union in The Gambia.

Since 2021, more than 2,200 women have onboarded on the platform in close partnerships with FSPs and mobile network operators. These partnerships contributed to the reinforcement of the financial services ecosystem in The Gambia by developing new synergies and technical integrations between Bayba, a financial service provider Afri-money, a mobile money provider and the MaTontine.

The main features of the platform include digital payments and digital financial services for savings groups combined with data analytics and the capacity to build credit profiles for individual clients. The platform also manages the transaction fees and commissions as well as project fees from partners.

By digitalizing this thriving informal sector in The Gambia, the platform has enabled the creation of digital histories making informal women's savings group more attractive to financial service providers. The development of the platform included several product design workshops with women groups, women associations, and stakeholders in the financial inclusion sector to develop products tailored to women’s needs.

At the end of the project, MaTontine’s platform showed that such digital solutions can equip the country to address savings barriers by offering accessibility, convenience, privacy and security through new channels. Locally, these tools represent a huge opportunity to close the gender gap in financial inclusion and provide a solution for women that addresses their needs in The Gambia.

See more here MaTontine.