Multinational - Executing human centred design research into smartphone-enabled digital financial services for women

The majority of the informal female traders in Kenya do not have access to smartphones and internet-enabled devices that can open multiple opportunities for digital financial services (DFS) and related services in areas such as financial literacy and business skills training. M-KOPA will use the USD 300,000 ADFI-awarded funding for research to assess barriers to and opportunities for women’s access to digital financial service and financial literacy programmes via its credit-secured, pay-as-you-go smartphones and use the research insights to design a financial services app that is relevant to small-scale women traders. The research study, involving 250 women and 250 men in Kenya’s Kisumu, Eldoret and Machakos counties, will benefit women with no or limited access to financial services who run small informal businesses. Once developed, the mobile app will be used to pilot small loans to women traders.