Evaluation of Microcred’s plan to bank a million new customers

Microcred (now Baobab) is a leading digital financial inclusion group focusing on serving individuals, micro and small businesses in Africa and China.

Microcred was awarded a $12-million grant by the Mastercard Foundation in 2015 to roll out its Mass Market Financial Inclusion (MMFI) project, which aims to provide access to key financial services for the unbanked populations of Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar (375 000 clients in each country).

MMFI's objectives include:

• understanding clients' needs, demands and challenges;

• developing and implementing customer-centric products and channels; and

• building capacity of staff and agents.

Genesis Analytics was contracted to conduct an evaluation of the MMFI project. This involved two components:

1. A baseline diagnostic review of the context in which the project activities take place. The baseline evaluation provided insight into the prevailing institutions/competitors in the market, regulatory framework and customer demand dynamics, as well as the relevance of the MMFI project activities.

2. A mid-term evaluation that served to ascertain MMFI’s level of progress vis-à-vis its objectives in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar and generated key learnings to inform the remainder of the project, as well as the Mastercard Foundation’s learning framework.

The evaluation was completed in February 2018 and included an in-depth desktop review, key informant interviews with Microcred staff at head office and subsidiary levels, a survey with 806 clients (leveraging Microcred’s call centres) and focus group discussions with clients in Senegal and Madagascar.