On November 19th and 20th, The MasterCard Foundation, with the Boulder Institute of Microfinance, will bring together 325 financial inclusion practitioners and experts from 62 countries in Westin Hotel, Cape Town South Africa.
The practitioners will debate and explore how the financial services industry in developing countries can become more client centric in order to bring secure, affordable and convenient financial services to the world’s two billion people who currently lack access to them.
The MasterCard Foundation will award the first “Clients at the Centre Prize” of US$150,000 to the most client-centric company in the world offering financial services to poor people in developing countries. The audience will vote for the winner of the Prize.
The MasterCard Foundation will also join with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch i2i, a data hub that will make available new and better data about what poor customers indicate they need and want from financial institutions.
Those who will speak at the event include Reeta Roy who is the President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation, Doug Baillie who is the Chief Human Resources Officer, Unilever, Claire Burns who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Metropolitan Life, Ken Njoroge and Bolaji Akinboro who are the Co-Founders, Cellulant and James Mwangi who is the CEO and Managing Director, Equity Bank Group.
Data from the 2015 Global Findex report shows that some 700 million people worldwide gained access to formal financial services between 2012 and 2014, but that another two billion people remain without such access.
The MasterCard Foundation believes that universal financial inclusion, embedded in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, can be achieved if financial service providers adopt or strengthen more client-centric approaches.
The MasterCard Foundation works with visionary organizations to provide greater access to education, skills training and financial services for people living in poverty, primarily in Africa. As one of the largest, independent foundations, its work is guided by its mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion in order to alleviate poverty. Based in Toronto, Canada, its independence was established by MasterCard when the Foundation was created in 2006.