FINCA to extend Africa reach via First Access partnership

The non-profit Foundation for International Community Assistance, aka FINCA, established in 1984 and whose microfinance network serves 1.8m people in 23 countries, aims to add 1.1m new clients in Africa over the next three years. In what it describes as the world’s largest microfinance financial technology (fintech) collaboration, FINCA has formed a pan-Africa partnership with New York-based credit scoring specialist First Access to use demographic and mobile phone data to credit clients in an efficient way in places where credit bureaux do not exist.

First Access will analyse existing client data from FINCA’s operations, as well as subscriber data from local mobile network operators (MNOs), to establish credit scores for low-income clients who lack sufficient formal credit history to secure small loans to build businesses or support emerging personal needs. Based on a pilot in Tanzania, the FINCA/First Access will, by late 2016, operate in six African countries where FINCA maintains subsidiaries, making it the largest such credit scoring programme using innovative fintech for any micro financial institution (MFI).