Current Projects

We provided an assessment of the SME sector in Kyrgyzstan.

The objective of this study was to provide an assessment of the SME sector in Kyrgyzstan, through a careful analysis of the latest trends in development of the Kyrgyz business environment and the legal framework relevant for SMEs in general and women-led SMEs in particular. The assessment provided the EBRD with a detailed overview and description of the key constraints faced by each sub-segment of SMEs and women-led SMEs in accessing finance, while also including recommendations on possible measures to address the supply- and demand-side challenges they meet in accessing finance and acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to their successful development.

We provided an assessment of the SME sector in Uzbekistan.

The objective of this study was to provide an assessment of the SME sector in Uzbekistan, through a careful analysis of the latest trends in the development of the Uzbek business environment and the legal framework relevant for SMEs in general and women-led SMEs in particular. The assessment provided the European Development Bank an identification of key constraints faced by each sub-segment of SMEs and women-led SMEs in accessing finance, while also including recommendations on possible measures to address the supply and demand side challenges faced by SMEs and women-led SMEs.

Author

ConsumerCentriX Project Team

Date

November 22nd, 2023

Area Covered

Latin America, Caribbean

Topics

Financial Inclusion, Women’s Financial Inclusion, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Financial Regulation, Research

ConsumerCentriX (CCX), in partnership with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), is working to develop a gender-inclusive finance (GIF) roadmap for AFI member countries in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. The project seeks to address the lack of systematic review of practical policy actions that AFI members in the LAC region can undertake to increase women’s financial inclusion and reduce their gender gaps.

With extensive experience from working with AFI on two projects, part of the AFI Gender Inclusive Finance Workstream, the CCX team, led by Partner Anna Gincherman, will undertake three primary tasks, including:

• Assessing the state of financial inclusion in the LAC region, highlight the significant milestones, targets, and drivers for women’s financial inclusion
• Identifying key barriers and opportunities to women’s financial inclusion in the LAC region
• Identifying main areas of focus for regulators and implementation initiatives in the LAC region based on the best practices and the region’s own unique needs

Through extensive secondary and primary research, the CCX team will develop a GIF landscape report for the LAC region covering the main barriers and opportunities for women’s financial inclusion, with recommendations and an implementation plan based on the key findings from the research.

CCX is actively engaged in the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap (AFIGAP) project, funded by the Alliance for Inclusion (AFI). The project is designed to increase AFI members’ understanding of the barriers and enablers of gender-inclusive finance to help national financial regulators and policymakers identify highly specific and concrete actions that will advance gender-inclusive finance in their countries.

The project has four main deliverables, which include:

• Landscape report: This report looks at the state of women’s financial inclusion across the AFI network to provide an assessment of the key financial policy and regulatory enablers needed at a national level.
• Summary report: This report is a call to action that highlights key findings from the landscape report to offer practical recommendations to decision-makers from AFI’s member jurisdictions on specific steps they can take to create a more conducive environment for increasing women’s financial inclusion.
• Case studies: The team conducted case studies of 13 countries from AFI’s membership to provide a deeper understanding of the status of women’s financial inclusion in each along with its key barriers and enablers.
• Analytical Data set: This is data collected during the project that will become part of AFI’s online data portal.

The ConsumerCentriX team conducted several activities to meet these deliverables, including mapping women’s financial access in relation to the level of economic development for AFI member countries and developing an analytical framework to identify key factors enabling women’s financial inclusion to understand progress. The key enabling elements used in the framework include; policies, regulations, and government engagement; information technology and identification infrastructure; and a broader environment of women’s economic participation, inclusion, and entrepreneurship. The AFIGAP Project is a flagship project as part of AFI’s focus on Gender Inclusive Finance, and select findings were showcased at its Global Policy Forum of 2022. AFI aims to launch the project reports as a knowledge product at the Global Policy Forum in September 2023.

Being relatively young regions, economic integration of youth is a defining challenge across the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions, but policy priorities have not aligned yet in a consistent way around entrepreneurship and the post-education age cohorts. Integrating young people into the labor market and increasing youth entrepreneurship offers many social and economic benefits.

While access to finance is one of the greatest challenges faced by MSMEs across the globe, the barriers imposed to young people can be even higher. The lack of capital, experience, and information, as well as economic and market challenges, can impede youth inclusion in preferred businesses even when there is an expressed willingness to start up a business and create sustainable economic opportunities.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has developed the Youth in Business Programme that aims to provide a holistic approach to addressing the barriers faced by youth entrepreneurs in terms of access to finance and access to know-how.

In cooperation with International Project Consult (IPC), ConsumerCentriX was selected to support the development and roll-out of the Programme in 11 countries of the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions. As such, ConsumerCentriX is undertaking comprehensive market research of youth entrepreneurs gaining an in-depth understanding of their apparent and latent needs, challenges, behavior, most prominent segments, and profiles.

While youth entrepreneurs share important lifecycle features in business and finance across the regions, country-level contexts and financial sector structure require customized solutions. With this in mind, market assessment further expands and looks at the supply side and the potential areas, where youth is likely to be udder-served and could benefit from dedicated financial and non-financial offers.

The market assessment will then be followed by the Programme launch and implementation together with interested financial institutions in the selected countries.

As it stands today, Youth in Business Programme has been successfully launched in Western Balkans.

Providing strategies to enhance the bank’s value proposition to SMEs Since November 2019, the CCX team has been collaborating with BPR Bank Rwanda (formally KCB Rwanda) on enhancing the bank’s capacity to deliver financial and non-financial services (NFS) that meet the needs of its SME customers, under the funding of Argidius Foundation.

The building blocks of the project revolve around:

• Building the capacity of the staff on SME relationship management;
• Strengthening the bank’s NFS strategy and implementation, and;
• Tailoring the SME value proposition for different segments.

Since the launch, the CCX team has assisted the bank in redefining its SME segments, deepening relationship banking, sales, and credit analysis skills of the retail and credit teams through extensive training and integrating NFS solutions within the bank’s business model. CCX’s hands-on experience in SME lending and business development provided fundamental support and know-how in designing customized lending approaches and non-financial services for the target groups. While the capacity building focuses on training, coaching, and mentoring staff of different departments and roles through an “SME Excellence Center”, the NFS work focuses on fostering clients’ financial and business skills in order to help them grow and become more resilient. The CCX team also launched the SME Response Clinic in response to the pandemic’s issues of access to information, business skills training and development, and finance. The online portal provides a centralized source of information and opportunities targeting entrepreneurs in Rwanda.

CCX’s effort to deliver technical assistance to BPR Bank through implementing a holistic banking model and addressing the financial and non-financial needs of SMEs aims to ultimately foster entrepreneurship in Rwanda by providing access to finance, business skills, information, and networking opportunities for SME owners.

CCX is actively engaged in the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap (AFIGAP) project, funded by the Alliance for Inclusion (AFI). The project is designed to increase AFI members’ understanding of the barriers and enablers of gender-inclusive finance to help national financial regulators and policymakers identify highly specific and concrete actions that will advance gender-inclusive finance in their countries.

The project has four main deliverables, which include:

• Landscape report: This report looks at the state of women’s financial inclusion across the AFI network to provide an assessment of the key financial policy and regulatory enablers needed at a national level.
• Summary report: This report is a call to action that highlights key findings from the landscape report to offer practical recommendations to decision-makers from AFI’s member jurisdictions on specific steps they can take to create a more conducive environment for increasing women’s financial inclusion.
• Case studies: The team conducted case studies of 13 countries from AFI’s membership to provide a deeper understanding of the status of women’s financial inclusion in each along with its key barriers and enablers.
• Analytical Data set: This is data collected during the project that will become part of AFI’s online data portal.

The ConsumerCentriX team conducted several activities to meet these deliverables, including mapping women’s financial access in relation to the level of economic development for AFI member countries and developing an analytical framework to identify key factors enabling women’s financial inclusion to understand progress. The key enabling elements used in the framework include; policies, regulations, and government engagement; information technology and identification infrastructure; and a broader environment of women’s economic participation, inclusion, and entrepreneurship. The AFIGAP Project is a flagship project as part of AFI’s focus on Gender Inclusive Finance, and select findings were showcased at its Global Policy Forum of 2022. AFI aims to launch the project reports as a knowledge product at the Global Policy Forum in September 2023.

Being relatively young regions, economic integration of youth is a defining challenge across the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions, but policy priorities have not aligned yet in a consistent way around entrepreneurship and the post-education age cohorts. Integrating young people into the labor market and increasing youth entrepreneurship offers many social and economic benefits.

While access to finance is one of the greatest challenges faced by MSMEs across the globe, the barriers imposed to young people can be even higher. The lack of capital, experience, and information, as well as economic and market challenges, can impede youth inclusion in preferred businesses even when there is an expressed willingness to start up a business and create sustainable economic opportunities.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has developed the Youth in Business Programme that aims to provide a holistic approach to addressing the barriers faced by youth entrepreneurs in terms of access to finance and access to know-how.

In cooperation with International Project Consult (IPC), ConsumerCentriX was selected to support the development and roll-out of the Programme in 11 countries of the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions. As such, ConsumerCentriX is undertaking comprehensive market research of youth entrepreneurs gaining an in-depth understanding of their apparent and latent needs, challenges, behavior, most prominent segments, and profiles.

While youth entrepreneurs share important lifecycle features in business and finance across the regions, country-level contexts and financial sector structure require customized solutions. With this in mind, market assessment further expands and looks at the supply side and the potential areas, where youth is likely to be udder-served and could benefit from dedicated financial and non-financial offers.

The market assessment will then be followed by the Programme launch and implementation together with interested financial institutions in the selected countries.

As it stands today, Youth in Business Programme has been successfully launched in Western Balkans.

Providing strategies to enhance the bank’s value proposition to SMEs Since November 2019, the CCX team has been collaborating with BPR Bank Rwanda (formally KCB Rwanda) on enhancing the bank’s capacity to deliver financial and non-financial services (NFS) that meet the needs of its SME customers, under the funding of Argidius Foundation.

The building blocks of the project revolve around:

• Building the capacity of the staff on SME relationship management;
• Strengthening the bank’s NFS strategy and implementation, and;
• Tailoring the SME value proposition for different segments.

Since the launch, the CCX team has assisted the bank in redefining its SME segments, deepening relationship banking, sales, and credit analysis skills of the retail and credit teams through extensive training and integrating NFS solutions within the bank’s business model. CCX’s hands-on experience in SME lending and business development provided fundamental support and know-how in designing customized lending approaches and non-financial services for the target groups. While the capacity building focuses on training, coaching, and mentoring staff of different departments and roles through an “SME Excellence Center”, the NFS work focuses on fostering clients’ financial and business skills in order to help them grow and become more resilient. The CCX team also launched the SME Response Clinic in response to the pandemic’s issues of access to information, business skills training and development, and finance. The online portal provides a centralized source of information and opportunities targeting entrepreneurs in Rwanda.

CCX’s effort to deliver technical assistance to BPR Bank through implementing a holistic banking model and addressing the financial and non-financial needs of SMEs aims to ultimately foster entrepreneurship in Rwanda by providing access to finance, business skills, information, and networking opportunities for SME owners.

CCX is actively engaged in the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap (AFIGAP) project, funded by the Alliance for Inclusion (AFI). The project is designed to increase AFI members’ understanding of the barriers and enablers of gender-inclusive finance to help national financial regulators and policymakers identify highly specific and concrete actions that will advance gender-inclusive finance in their countries.

The project has four main deliverables, which include:

• Landscape report: This report looks at the state of women’s financial inclusion across the AFI network to provide an assessment of the key financial policy and regulatory enablers needed at a national level.
• Summary report: This report is a call to action that highlights key findings from the landscape report to offer practical recommendations to decision-makers from AFI’s member jurisdictions on specific steps they can take to create a more conducive environment for increasing women’s financial inclusion.
• Case studies: The team conducted case studies of 13 countries from AFI’s membership to provide a deeper understanding of the status of women’s financial inclusion in each along with its key barriers and enablers.
• Analytical Data set: This is data collected during the project that will become part of AFI’s online data portal.

The ConsumerCentriX team conducted several activities to meet these deliverables, including mapping women’s financial access in relation to the level of economic development for AFI member countries and developing an analytical framework to identify key factors enabling women’s financial inclusion to understand progress. The key enabling elements used in the framework include; policies, regulations, and government engagement; information technology and identification infrastructure; and a broader environment of women’s economic participation, inclusion, and entrepreneurship. The AFIGAP Project is a flagship project as part of AFI’s focus on Gender Inclusive Finance, and select findings were showcased at its Global Policy Forum of 2022. AFI aims to launch the project reports as a knowledge product at the Global Policy Forum in September 2023.

Being relatively young regions, economic integration of youth is a defining challenge across the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions, but policy priorities have not aligned yet in a consistent way around entrepreneurship and the post-education age cohorts. Integrating young people into the labor market and increasing youth entrepreneurship offers many social and economic benefits.

While access to finance is one of the greatest challenges faced by MSMEs across the globe, the barriers imposed to young people can be even higher. The lack of capital, experience, and information, as well as economic and market challenges, can impede youth inclusion in preferred businesses even when there is an expressed willingness to start up a business and create sustainable economic opportunities.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has developed the Youth in Business Programme that aims to provide a holistic approach to addressing the barriers faced by youth entrepreneurs in terms of access to finance and access to know-how.

In cooperation with International Project Consult (IPC), ConsumerCentriX was selected to support the development and roll-out of the Programme in 11 countries of the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions. As such, ConsumerCentriX is undertaking comprehensive market research of youth entrepreneurs gaining an in-depth understanding of their apparent and latent needs, challenges, behavior, most prominent segments, and profiles.

While youth entrepreneurs share important lifecycle features in business and finance across the regions, country-level contexts and financial sector structure require customized solutions. With this in mind, market assessment further expands and looks at the supply side and the potential areas, where youth is likely to be udder-served and could benefit from dedicated financial and non-financial offers.

The market assessment will then be followed by the Programme launch and implementation together with interested financial institutions in the selected countries.

As it stands today, Youth in Business Programme has been successfully launched in Western Balkans.

Providing strategies to enhance the bank’s value proposition to SMEs Since November 2019, the CCX team has been collaborating with BPR Bank Rwanda (formally KCB Rwanda) on enhancing the bank’s capacity to deliver financial and non-financial services (NFS) that meet the needs of its SME customers, under the funding of Argidius Foundation.

The building blocks of the project revolve around:

• Building the capacity of the staff on SME relationship management;
• Strengthening the bank’s NFS strategy and implementation, and;
• Tailoring the SME value proposition for different segments.

Since the launch, the CCX team has assisted the bank in redefining its SME segments, deepening relationship banking, sales, and credit analysis skills of the retail and credit teams through extensive training and integrating NFS solutions within the bank’s business model. CCX’s hands-on experience in SME lending and business development provided fundamental support and know-how in designing customized lending approaches and non-financial services for the target groups. While the capacity building focuses on training, coaching, and mentoring staff of different departments and roles through an “SME Excellence Center”, the NFS work focuses on fostering clients’ financial and business skills in order to help them grow and become more resilient. The CCX team also launched the SME Response Clinic in response to the pandemic’s issues of access to information, business skills training and development, and finance. The online portal provides a centralized source of information and opportunities targeting entrepreneurs in Rwanda.

CCX’s effort to deliver technical assistance to BPR Bank through implementing a holistic banking model and addressing the financial and non-financial needs of SMEs aims to ultimately foster entrepreneurship in Rwanda by providing access to finance, business skills, information, and networking opportunities for SME owners.