How to Succeed in Your Digital Journey: A Series of Toolkits for Financial Service Providers - Toolkit #3: Leverage an Existing Agent Network

This toolkit is the third in a series of six toolkits aimed at supporting financial institutions (FIs) to go digital. With this series of digital finance toolkits, a financial institution will be able to choose the best business model based on an assessment of its environment (political, economic, social, technological, and regulatory), objectives, capacity and readiness to carry out the efforts required.

The first two business models of this framework Toolkit #1: Use Mobile as a Tool and Toolkit #2: Be an Agent, consist in using mobile as a service where basic transactions are performed by staff of the FSP using mobile devices. Model 3 describes agency banking, where agents (of a mobile network operator, payment service provider or financial institution) assist clients with the transactions if needed. Clients can also perform transactions by themselves except for cash-in/out where an agent is needed as intermediary.

Toolkit #3 consists of two main documents:

• Part 1: Describes the business model and recipe for success. It includes three international case studies, MOSS ICT in Ethiopia, Diamond Bank in Nigeria and Advans in Côte d’Ivoire—illustrating how a payment service provider (PSP) such as MOSS ICT can be a good partner for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in order to successfully offer digital financial services (DFS) to their customers via an agent network.
• Part 2: Presents the digital journey of three organizations, UGAFODE Microfinance Limited in Uganda, Société de Financement de la Petite Entreprise (SOFIPE) in Burkina Faso and FINCA Tanzania.