Increasing Access to Formal Financial Services

This learning brief describes three models that the USAID-funded Feed the Future Rural Resilience Activity (RRA) utilized to provide formal financial services, in particular credit and savings, to previously excluded populations in Northeast Nigeria, to build their resilience to shocks and stresses to which they are constantly exposed.

• Microfinance Bank (MFB) direct to customers.
• Commercial Bank partners with a BDSP which acts as an aggregator to on-lend.
• Fintech-led companies direct to savings groups.

For each model, the brief highlights the key design and implementation features, the results and impact to date, and how service provision and use continue and grow in the future. It therefore shows how a Market Systems Development-led approach can facilitate access to formal financial services even in thin markets and fragile contexts, and provide recommendations for future interventions.