Deconstructing the Monolith: Segmentation of Women Clients
The path to women's financial inclusion has been made difficult by the persistent, but often misguided idea that women tend to have uniform wants and needs. However, women are not a monolith and meeting their financial needs requires developing a nuanced understanding of their preferences and behaviors, which are shaped by age, life stage, location, and contexts, among many other factors.
FinEquity will be featuring Financial Service Providers (FSP) that are using innovative ways to learn and respond to women's differentiated needs and preferences as a key to growing their market share and achieving business goals. Through a series of fast-paced, in-depth conversations, we will hear about their successes, failures, and lessons learned as well as any advice they have for other providers who may not be convinced about the opportunity and need to take a segmented approach to serve the women's market.
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Segmentation of Women Clients: Lessons from VP Bank Vietnam and CARE Ignite
Join us for the second fast paced conversation in our series to hear from VP Bank in Vietnam and the CARE Ignite project. In 2018 VP Bank Vietnam became the first Vietnamese bank to adopt a strategy specifically designed for women-owned SME’s. The 2017 IFC market study highlighted a $1.19 billion financing gap for women-owned SMEs throughout Vietnam. Recognizing the potential of this opportunity, VP Bank launched a strategy to meet the financial needs of women entrepreneurs in Vietnam. Three years later, women make up 25% of VP Bank portfolio with innovations such as the SME dashboard, specialized credit card and bundled insurance. In 2019, VP Bank entered into a partnership with CARE to support further outreach to women owned MSME’s. This partnership between CARE's Ignite Program and VP Bank supports women entrepreneurs by facilitating access to tailored financial products, alternative digital lending channels and a range of non-financial services (training, mentoring, digital capabilities, networks) to improve their business health. This conversation will be a chance to learn more about how VP Bank developed and scaled its strategy to be the bank of choice for women entrepreneurs in Vietnam.
Segmentation of Women Clients: Lessons from Access Bank Nigeria and KIT Royal Tropical Institute
Join us for our next conversation to hear from Access Bank and KIT Royal Tropical Institute. Access Bank is one of the largest commercial banks in Africa. Access Bank recognized the potential growth opportunity of the women’s market fifteen years ago and in 2014 formalized this focus through their signature W- Initiative. Using rigorous market research across Nigeria, Access Bank identified three distinct priority segments of women and created specialized customer value propositions that included adapting existing products along with tailored non-financial services. By adopting a strategy that allowed multiple business units within the bank to offer products and services to the target segments of women. Access Bank has brought in 15.4 million new women clients and women now represents 34 % of the bank's portfolio. The bank intends to increase that number to at least 45 % by 2022.
In 2019, Access Bank PLC and FMO – the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank - commissioned the KIT Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and Palladium to deliver a bundle of services to strengthen the W-Initiative in four countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. A market research was conducted by KIT to identify the needs and preferences of the three W-Initiative female market segments.
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Join us for the first conversation to hear from BBVA Microfinance Foundation about how its affiliates in Colombia, Peru, Panama, and the Dominican Republic have segmented and analyzed the specific needs and preferences of the more than 1.5 million women entrepreneurs they serve in the Latin American and Caribbean region by offering tailor-made products and increasing the value proposition of the products available. By segmenting their women’s market based on life stage, geographical context, and economic profiles, BBVAMF affiliates were able to develop specialized products that range from health insurance for women’s wellness visits to alternative collateral-based loan products for women in agri-business. In this fast-paced conversation, we will delve into the how and the why of this approach as well as the lessons learned, and the challenges encountered in this journey of delivering financial solutions to women.