Partner: Bankable Frontier Associates Global

Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are vital for the economic growth of a country and are widely recognized as a catalyst for socio-economic transformation in both India and East Africa. Emerging insights from LEAD’s work in India and BFA’s experience in East Africa suggest that there is significant potential to support the growth of small businesses through targeted strategies, and operational solutions that can generate value for micro-enterprises through analytics, access to finance, inventory management and streamlined business processes.

To this end, LEAD in collaboration with BFA Global hosted an experience-sharing workshop on digitizing microbusiness ecosystems in India and East Africa. The workshop saw participation from 40 of India’s premier fintechs, financial institutions, investors and development practitioners.Participants shared insights on designing digital value propositions for micro-merchants and businesses and discussed areas for further research and experimentation in this space.