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Women Helping Women: How a Network of Female Digital Finance Agents is Boosting Empowerment in India

SDGs Impacted

Grameen Foundation believes that women are key to ending poverty. In order to advance women’s economic empowerment, we have established a unique, digitally driven social enterprise model that extends digital finance among hitherto unreached poor rural communities in India, especially women. The model is unique because it harnesses the untapped potential of local rural women who are rarely hired as traditional field agents. In the Indian state of Maharashtra, Grameen Foundation India has identified local rural women who are inclined towards making a meaningful contribution to society and learning new skills. Once they have acquired their own smart phone and a 4G SIM card, we provide them with a biometric authentication device and train them on digital financial literacy, enabling them to act as agents for both public and private sector financial service providers (FSPs).

Impact / Outcome
Our Grameen Mitras (which means “friends of the village” in Hindi) today form a growing network of over 200 skilled agents who have empowered almost 270,000 low-income individuals – mostly women – with access to digital financial services right at their doorstep. The program began around January of 2018, and the agent networks have been active since mid-November: These agents have already facilitated transactions worth more than 21 million Indian rupees.
Funding sources
Private
Key Metrics
Boost women's empowerment through digital inclusion
Sector
Financial services
Intervention lever
Indirect government
Operating model
Fully private
Target populations
Women & girls, Rural
Year published
01 January 2019

The EDISON Alliance

A World Economic Forum Initiative