The Sub-Saharan Africa Financial Sector Development Project was a 5-year partnership between Women’s World Banking and FSD Africa to build the capacity of Diamond Bank Nigeria and NMB Bank Tanzania, as well as broader local markets, to better serve low-income populations with financial services. FSD Africa and Women’s World Banking also worked to transfer knowledge and disseminate lessons learnt to support the case for financial inclusion of women at scale.
The programme ended in December 2018. At project close, the partnership had developed and adapted over 7 new products designed for women and young people, reaching over 1.5 million clients with savings products – 44% of which were women. Loan products reached 3,500 clients, with 1,900 loans made to MSMEs using a cash-flow based lending methodology.
Over 150 financial service providers’ staff participated in leadership capacity building programs, 60% of whom were women. More than 100 knowledge products (research papers, blogs, articles, conferences, workshops) were disseminated during the partnership, reaching over 30,000 readers or attendees.