An Award for FINCA Kyrgyzstan
Mobile phones are for more than just talking on the phone. In fact, FINCA is expanding access to financial services, especially for rural low-income women and men, through mobile phones. This enables our clients to save time and make secure transactions from virtually anywhere.
In recognition of its efforts to reach out to the financially excluded by means of mobile banking and eWallet technologies, FINCA Kyrgyzstan has been awarded the Microfinance Centre’s first-ever Innovation Award. An eWallet is any device that allows people to make electronic commerce transactions by securely storing a consumer’s payment data.
The Microfinance Centre is a regional microfinance resource center and network uniting 101 organizations across 31 countries of Europe, Central Asia and beyond. Its goal is to reduce poverty while developing human potential by promoting a sustainable and innovative microfinance sector.
The MFC’s Innovation Award recognizes FINCA Kyrgyzstan for its efforts to expand financial access by providing the unbanked with innovative solutions like mobile banking and eWallets.
These technologies empower clients by offering them the opportunity to make purchases, repay their loans and even transfer money, anytime and anywhere, from their mobile device. This saves them precious time while lowering risks and costs. The eWallet is particularly useful in a vast country like Kyrgyzstan, where 82% of the population is financially excluded. In addition, thanks to the eWallet, Kyrgyz citizens who work in Russia and elsewhere can send money home to their families in Kyrgyzstan.
