Please indicate any innovations in your microfinance program planned for the coming year:
WSBI is one of the Coalition of Partners supporting the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access (UFA) 2020 Goal. At the meeting of its General Assembly on 23 September 2015, WSBI members pledged to reach1.7 billion customers and add 400 million new transaction accounts by the end of 2020. One year later, WSBI is pleased to report that it has exceeded its projections with an increase of 117 million customers and 244 million transaction accounts as at 31 December 2015. This commitment reinforces the continued engagement of WSBI and it members with its ‘Account for Everyone’goal announced by the trade body in 2012.
WSBI is a consultant partner in the African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI), a regional programme seeking to enhance competition in the African remittance market place by promoting and enabling African post offices in selected countries to offer remittances and financial services. These activities are carried out mainly in rural areas and the countries concerned are: Benin, Ghana, Madagascar, Senegal. In reserve; Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. The project duration is December 2014 to September 2016.
Associated consultants are IFAD Finance Facility for Remittances (Lead Firm), World Bank Group (WBG), Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).