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Freedom from cash

BRAC Social Innovation Lab

5 March, 2014

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Wardak Province, Afghanistan

Photo: New York Times Read the full story

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“Send money home”

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Video

www.brac.netLink: http://bkash.com/media-center/videos/stories

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Financial Inclusion

2.6 billion people live on less than $2 per day.

78% do not have a bank account.

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Exclusion can mean…..

• No safe place to keep savings; high reliance on informal tools

• Lack of control over finances• Difficulty transferring, especially over long

distances• No credit profile• Limited scope for add-on services

(reminders, etc.)

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more than 1 billion underserved people have access to mobile phones

84 countries developing and emerging markets now have mobile money services.

In 9 countries, more people have mobile money accounts than bank

accounts

in June 2013, there were over 60 million ACTIVE mobile money accounts GLOBALLY.

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Government schemes and social protections (Philippines, Fiji, Pakistan, Mexico)

Salary, staff incentives, etc. (Tanzania, Kenya)

Improving existing models

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Cashless microfinance (Kenya)

Pay-as-you-go schools (Kenya)

Self-serve, paid water dispensers (India)

New opportunities

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Common Challenges

• Agent network• Client trust and familiarity• Organizational adoption of digital financial

practices• Effective regulation

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The opportunity in Bangladesh• 110 million cell

phone users• Only 40% of the

population banked• Fastest growing

mobile money market in the world

Number of

registered

mobile money clients

grew by

266% in 2013

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What else?

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Increase the adoption of digital financial services at

BRAC, particularly in service delivery

Contribute to the global discourse on digital financial services

Increase the adoption of digital financial services by BRAC’s clients

BRAC Innovation Fund for Digital Financial Services

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Mobile money in Bangladesh

Chars Livelihoods ProgrammeTransferring stipends for asset

transfer programme to 6,500 participants

BRAC Microfinance Programme

Collecting monthly savings from clients

using bKash from over 1,200 clients

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Potential benefits to BRAC

• Reduction of manual data entry• Real-time, accurate information• Fewer security risks for staff and branches• Less scope for misappropriation• Potential reduction of transport costs• New types of products and programmes

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BRAC Innovation Fund for Digital Financial Services

•Scanning and learning from others

•Frugal Innovation Forum: Scaling Digitally

•First round of projects selection

•Implementation!!

DISSEMINATION

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Idea selection process

Funded Projects

Final selection by judges

Proposal submissio

n

Online idea

challenge

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We are looking for ideas that..

►Include the use of mobile money

►Either transition from cash to mobile money, or design a new product and/or service that is enabled through the use of mobile money

►Can be implemented within a year

►Have the potential to be sustained at scale beyond the terms of the project

►Is likely to influence and motivate higher adoption of mobile money by clients or BRAC

►Request under $100,000 (preferred)

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Competition timeline

16 MarchOnline

competition begins

10 AprilOnline

competition closes

20 April

Proposals requested

for promising

ideas

10 May

Last day to submit

full proposal

31 May

Selected pilots will

be announced

01 JunePilots

officially begin

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Get started!

• Visit the website and submit an idea:– http://innovation.brac.net/fundchallenge/

• Learn what others are doing from the SIL blog– www.brac.net/sil

• Engage with experts from the Frugal Innovation Forum in person or on twitter (#scalefrugal)

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Contact the Social Innovation Lab

Email: innovation@brac.net

Cell phone: 01729071065

Extension: 3394