Low-income earners, women, and youth who have traditionally been locked out of the financial system are no longer invisible. The advent of mobile money and uptake by this market segment has created data footprints that enable financial service providers (FSPs) to analyse their financial needs. In addition, external research carried out by governments and donors is free and publicly available. This research data is instrumental in enabling financial service providers to obtain a better understanding of clients that they have had no previous interactions with.

The Data Management and Analytics Capabilities (DMAC) project implemented in Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia sought to demonstrate the case for the use of data in the product development cycle of banks, insurance companies, and fintechs. Learnings and lessons from the project implementation have been developed into a toolkit that acts as a guide for FSPs seeking to derive maximum value from their internal data, externally available research data and other third-party data, in order to improve their service offering to new and existing clients.

Read more on how to use data to transform financial services here.,