In Dialog with Wema Financial institution’s Adekunle Alarapon: In a Digitally Dominant Period, Bodily Touchpoints Stay Important for Monetary Inclusion

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Adekunle Alarapon (ACIB, CDEF) is Head of Retail Segments for Wema Financial institution Plc, the place he holds obligations for Agent Banking & Monetary Inclusion, Gaming & Leisure Enterprise, Office Banking and Feminine Gender (Sara) Propositions. Mr. Alarapon has greater than 20 years of banking expertise in operations, management, business, retail and digital banking. He’s an Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, the place he obtained an award in Technique & Management; a member of the Chartered Institute of Administration Accountants, UK; and an Affiliate Member of the Nigeria Institute of Administration. He additionally has a Certificates in Digital Digital Finance from the Frankfurt Enterprise College in Germany.

Mr. Alarapon not too long ago spoke at our 2023 Ladies’s World Banking Making Finance Work for Ladies Summit in Mumbai, India, the place he was part of our Ladies-Centered Design for Industrial Viability Workshop. We’re thrilled to attach as soon as extra with Mr. Alarapon for his insights on how women-centered design can form holistic or “hybrid” monetary options—that’s, options that bridge the hole between the digital and the bodily—and focus on how these options ought to meet ladies prospects the place they’re at of their monetary journeys to be really efficient.

Q: The fast transformation towards digital monetary options could also be forsaking low-income ladies who shouldn’t have handy or dependable entry to digital choices—if they’ve entry in any respect. GSMA’s newest analysis notes a stall in progress in closing the gender hole in cell phone possession and utilization (the first means each women and men entry the web in low- and middle-income international locations): As of 2021, they reported ladies in Sub-Saharan African international locations had been much less probably than males to personal a cell phone and fewer probably to make use of cell web after they did personal a telephone by 37% in each eventualities—leaving 192 million ladies on this area with out cell web. How can monetary companies suppliers (FSPs) handle points in entry to make sure that they’re nonetheless in a position to attain and interact all ladies prospects? Do bodily touchpoints play a component?

The monetary inclusion panorama in Nigeria and in most of Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be closely depending on bodily person-to-person (P2P) interplay. Therefore, a profitable system can be the institution of what Wema Financial institution calls “Phygital” facilities—our self-service in-branch platform that mixes the very best facets of conventional and digital banking—throughout geographies and placement, serving to to help ladies’s participation in monetary and financial inclusion.

Wema Financial institution’s Phygital Branches, referred to as ALAT HUB, are outfitted with digital gadgets that provide prospects extra alternative for a way they like to financial institution, enabling ladies who could also be skeptical of solely digital capabilities to get pleasure from needed monetary companies, corresponding to account opening, card issuance, money withdrawals and deposits, interbank transfers, micro-savings and loans, micro-insurance, financial institution inquiries, and so forth. in particular person, however faster and extra seamlessly due to the know-how. It is a artistic means of delivering these companies by way of a digital channel that’s in a extra acquainted setting.

Q: Say there’s a monetary establishment that has a digital resolution with nice potential to drive monetary inclusion for last-mile ladies prospects, however they don’t have any bodily touchpoints embedded within the resolution course of. Would you count on this product to come across any challenges?

To be trustworthy, I see some disadvantages within the skill of such merchandise to scale quick exterior of city areas within the fast future. Nevertheless, as adoption of digital capabilities expands, suburban communities are likely to see a rise in utilization. Therefore, the design of digital options should think about the social-cultural behaviors and monetary wants of the typical African lady to make sure scalability from city to suburban areas, and finally to rural prospects.

Q: For a lot of low-income ladies prospects, participating frequently with monetary establishments and their choices could be intimidating, and common monetary literacy packages might show overwhelming. How can FSPs leverage each in-person and digital options to supply focused functionality constructing—so ladies get solely the knowledge they want, proper after they want it?

This should begin with the coaching of FSP personnel on the strategies and kinds of gross sales dynamics/pitches to low-income ladies. There’s a want to start out with constructing belief and relationships with the ladies; as soon as established, product choices could be launched utilizing a trusted beneficiary/product-user as a reference level. This may be executed by making a small group of ladies “ambassadors” or brokers throughout the neighborhood.

Q: Key moments, corresponding to signing up for an account or conducting the primary transaction, are essential to constructing ladies prospects’ confidence and belief—and these advantages could also be misplaced when such moments are solely performed digitally. Ladies’s World Banking analysis reveals that sure bodily touchpoints, like working with ladies banking brokers, can assist construct belief with ladies prospects and the monetary system. How can FSPs leverage these in-person experiences to encourage the transition to utilizing digital options as properly?

The usage of ladies banking brokers has turn into one of the vital magical strategies for participating low-income ladies in monetary services. FSPs ought to develop frameworks that appeal to and encourage ladies brokers to their community, and that assist them function advocates for the supplier. This might embody designing agent banking kits, corresponding to waist pouches, aprons and scarves as model identifiers for girls brokers. Ladies brokers are then inspired to succeed in out to ladies inside their communities and educate them find out how to use digital gadgets throughout neighborhood conferences and social events.

Q: In lots of rising economies, it is sensible to take care of bodily touchpoints and extra conventional options that ladies prospects are sometimes extra aware of. Nevertheless, we all know that digital options can usually scale back entry boundaries for low-income ladies and scale back long-term prices for suppliers. Are you able to inform us of a use case from Nigeria the place Wema Financial institution blended these moments, bodily and digital, in a means that delivered a tailor-made buyer expertise, somewhat than creating two parallel choices (in-person vs. digital)?

Wema Financial institution, along with Ladies’s World Banking and the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis, designed a micro-savings pockets for low-income ladies, referred to as NAIRA ASIDE. The product allows ladies to save lots of between $1 and $20 (in Naira equivalence) every day by means of Wema financial institution brokers (ALAT HUBS) situated inside their communities. These financial savings are made within the type of money deposits into their digital wallets by way of in-person brokers and obtain the worth of their accounts immediately. Ladies are inspired to comply with by means of with this every day financial savings sample for a predetermined interval of three or six months.

Q: As famous in our Summit workshop, enabling ladies to achieve higher entry to finance might unlock US$330 billion in annual international income. Are you able to spotlight among the enterprise advantages for FSPs after they ship holistic monetary options (bodily and digital resolution parts) that present ladies prospects with the “better of each worlds”?

There are enormous advantages opened for FSPs after they ship holistic monetary options that present ladies prospects entry to monetary companies. These embody however will not be restricted to alternatives for worldwide collaboration with different like-minded establishments; micro and macroeconomic enlargement for the FSP; and affiliation with governmental and non-governmental establishments.

Q: How does the pliability supplied by holistic monetary options—with digital and bodily parts—finally help ladies’s financial empowerment?

Ladies’s financial empowerment is supported by means of monetary options which can be intentionally designed with ladies in thoughts. These supply versatile engagement and allow a simple walkthrough of the consumer journey that makes digital entry enjoyable and attention-grabbing, somewhat than a compelling monetary proposition. Human beings react to modifications in several methods and it’s usually tougher to simply adapt to new strategies the older we turn into. Therefore, digital monetary options have to be supplied in enjoyable and attention-grabbing methods as early as attainable that endear curiosity amongst ladies prospects particularly by utilizing the acquainted delicate mechanisms of constructing mutual belief, relationship, security and reassurances.

Thanks, Mr. Alarapon, in your time and insights!

Study extra about Ladies’s World Banking’s design methodology, which was essential in our partnership with Wema Financial institution when launching NAIRA ASIDE.

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