Fincare

Globally, over 1.8 billion adults are still unbanked or poorly served by existing financial products and services. In Nigeria, more than 1 in 3 adults are financially excluded – with no access to useful, relevant, and affordable formal financial services such as payment, savings, and credit. Of the 106 million adult Nigerians in 2020, 44.8% were banked, while 5.7% and 13.6% were served by other formal channels and informal financial service providers such as ajo, esusu (this is the current reality of Nigeria’s financial inclusion campaign, 10 years after the big push for financial inclusion began in 2012). Gender gaps still exist with access to financial services, more in favor of men. In 2020, 21.3 million adult women, representing 20% of Nigeria’s adult population compared to 17 million men, are yet to be included in the financial system (Okoduwa and Odiboh 2022). Women are less likely to be financially included than men, while 57 percent of men in Nigeria have a financial account, only 45 percent of women do. There are limited data on financial inclusion for women and girls in MSME, however, a recent survey conducted by ELSOPHI indicates that over 80% of the women surveyed do not have a business bank account for their small businesses. 

In Nigeria, the first necessary step that positions a small business to open a business bank account is a certificate of business registration from the Corporate Affairs Commission. However, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports that the informal sector accounts for 99.8% of MSMEs, and only 10% were registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) — primarily as business names. This is a great hindrance to business financial inclusion for MSMEs in Nigeria.

Lack of digital financial literacy is also a major factor contributing to this problem. In Nigeria, access to and use of digital technology is neither universal nor equitable. Women and girls are the most disadvantaged with economic, social, and cultural obstacles both limiting and preventing women and girl’s access to digital technology and the benefits it brings. 

In Northern Nigeria, around 60% of the female population are not able to access the internet, and research shows that deeply entrenched social, gender, and cultural norms present a significant barrier to women and girls’ access to and use of digital technology and the internet. According to a recent study conducted by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), 55% of men in Northern Nigeria do not want their wives to use the internet, and 61% of fathers discourage their daughters’ use. While male figures are often the ones controlling access at a household level, data indicates that both sexes have internalized these norms and restrictive behaviors. 

 The International Monetary Funds (IMF) in a very recent publication recommended that "going forward, Nigeria’s financial inclusion strategy should more systematically leverage rapidly developing digital instruments" (Wezel and Ree 2023) .

Consequently, ELSOPHI's solution is leveraging digital technologies to provide access to business registration with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission and facilitate access to digital business financial services including banking, savings and loan services for women, girls and youths through mobile and agent banking services. 

The business registration is done through the CAC online self registration portal (https://pre.cac.gov.ng/login?r....) The CAC online self-service portal is a Digital Public Good, one stop user friendly and very responsive portal. This is the first time the commission has deployed this service channel and it has been running uninterrupted for the past two years. It provides direct access for micro and small business owners to register their businesses without the use of accredited agents. The portal can be used by any person who is digitally literate, it is accessible even on mobile phones from anywhere in the country and can also be accessed with laptops. However, the awareness on its availability and usage is very low, especially in rural areas. Our solution provides sensitization for women and further supports them to successfully use the portal to register their businesses and obtain registration certificate as a necessary first step in achieving business financial inclusion. 

Our solution further support women and young girls in MSME to have access to mobile banking services by introducing and linking them with the appropriate existing fintech companies and mobile banking agents within their areas.

Through group and community sensitization and workshops, our solution also support women, girls and youths in rural areas to gain digital technology skills which positions them to use mobile phones to do businesses.

We also provide financial literacy education for women and girls in MSMEs in rural hard to reach areas, this way, we improve their understanding of money management which is an enabler of financial inclusion.

Women and girls

Majority of women in the communities we serve are involved in agriculture, micro and small businesses is their primary means of livelihoods. The level of poverty in these communities is high as many households are not able to afford adequate diet and meals for their children. Many of the native men marry many wives who give birth to children without control and most of the children are usually left for their mothers to take care of including their meals, clothing and education. This leaves many of the women as bread weaner even while their husbands are still alive. Many of these women engage in micro and small businesses to support their families.

For 9 years, i and my team have worked with these target beneficiaries across different communities. We have lived and interacted with them at various levels while implementing various solutions to improve their wellbeing. 

From 2014 till now, we have consistently and progressively provided educational, health, and economic strengthening services for 7016 (3759M 3257F) vulnerable children including girls and 1800 women and men in 8 communities in this terrain

We have further;

*Trained and graduated 150 girls and boys from vocational training and provided them with startup kits to start their various vocations.

*Trained and Supported 500 women with small business startup grant of $125 each to establish their small businesses.

*Supported 1500 women and men to plant 1500 economic trees as means of livelihood and a climate change action.

*Supported 1500 farming women and men with improved vitamin A fortified cassava seedlings.

*Provided 2000 farming women and men with orange flesh sweet potatoes seedlings. 

*Provided gender education for 1500 women and men.

We have consistently and progressively provided financial, educational, health, and economic strengthening services for 7016 (3759M 3257F) vulnerable children and youths including girls and 1800 women and men in 8 communities in this terrain

We have further;

*Trained and graduated 150 girls and boys from vocational training and provided them with startup kits to start their various vocations.

*Trained and Supported 500 women with small business startup grant of $125 each to establish their small businesses.

*Supported 1500 women and men to plant 1500 economic trees as means of livelihood and a climate change action.

*Supported 1500 farming women and men with improved vitamin A fortified cassava seedlings.

*Provided 2000 farming women and men with orange flesh sweet potatoes seedlings. 

*Provided gender education for 1500 women and men.

We are seeking for new partnerships; new relationships that can provide us greater leverage to serve our target beneficiaries.

Partnership for change is at the Centre of the solution we provide as an organization. We have come thus far not so much of how much we have received in fund but because of the partnerships we have developed that have built and strengthened our organizational systems for efficiency and effectiveness. 

ELSOPHI's approach is an innovative way of providing access to business registration services for micro and small businesses using digital technologies, this will provide them with government business registration certificate which is a first step in achieving business financial inclusion.  Unlike registering businesses through the use of accredited agents like lawyers and accountants that comes with high charges that are not affordable to the average women, girls and young people in micro and small business, ELSOPHI's Fincare model provides direct self registration of micro and small businesses at a very affordable cost. The average cost of registering a business through an accredited agent is about $150-$200 but with this solution, women and young people can have their businesses registered with just $25, which translates to over 75% saving in cost. Beyond removing the barrier of high charges, our solution also comes with ease and convenience since it can be used from the comfort of a person's home with mobile phone.

Goal: Improved wellbeing of 2500 women and girls is achieved through increased access to market opportunities and financial services by 2027.

The specific measurable objectives are;

1. To provide business registration services for 2500 micro and small businesses for women and girls using the CAC online self-service portal by 2027.

1.1 Carry out 2500 business name search, reservation and registration with the corporate affairs commission (CAC) and small and medium enterprise development agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)

1.2 Conduct workshops on digital technology for 2500 care workers and caregivers

1.3 Hold outreaches for mobilization, engagement and assessment of beneficiaries

2. To have 2500 micro and small businesses open and operate business bank account for women and girls with a designated  bank/Fintech companies in Nigeria by 2027.

2.1 Conduct workshop on business plan development for 2500 women and girls

2.2 Facilitate the opening of business bank account for 2500 women and girls

2.3 Conduct workshop on financial inclusion for 2500 women and girls.

Indicators

Number of micro and small businesses that received formalization support

Number of micro and small businesses that opened and operating business bank accounts.

Number of women and girls  trained on digital inclusion disaggregated by sex.

Number of women and girls trained on financial inclusion disaggregated by sex.

%of women and girls  with increased access to business and market opportunities disaggregated by sex.

%of women and girls  with increased access to financial services disaggregated by sex.

By providing access to business registration services for women, girls and young people in micro, small and medium enterprises, we will increase business financial inclusion and scale up access to business and financial opportunities for them.

ELSOPHI is using the mobile phone technology to provide access to business registration for women and young people in micro and small businesses. Through the use of mobile phone, we are providing access to; business registration support for them right from the comfort of their homes in their various communities.  

We also use the mobile phone technology to provide financial services for women, girls and young people including the opening and operating of business bank accounts and facilitating access to savings, credit and business advisory services.

Gender equity and social inclusion is at the root of our work. Our organizational goal right from inception has been to foster social inclusion for the vulnerable and marginalized population especially; women, girls, children and youths.

This is evidenced in the composition of our board and the deliberate representation of women and girls in managerial position in the organization.

In staff recruitment, we are also very deliberate in giving fair and equal chances to women. We also have equity and inclusion provision in our organization policy documents regarding employment at all levels.

We operate as a not for profit social enterprise. Through participatory need assessment, we identify the need of our target beneficiaries and mobilize resources through grants and donations to meet those needs. Where we are unable to completely pay for the services with grants and donations, we subsidize the cost of services. For instance, in education and health, we use block/bulk granting arrangement with education and health facilities to subsidize the cost of services received by our beneficiaries. We also leverage public private partnership as a strategy to provide access to essential services for our beneficiaries. For instance, we have previously established community farms and food banks for care workers and caregivers through public private partnerships with communities and other corporate entities. We provide direct services to our beneficiaries working with trained community volunteers. Our beneficiaries want the services we provide because it meets their needs and offer them value that brings transformation and improvement in their wellbeing.

We are predominantly a grant and donation funded organization. We primarily source for grants through concept paper and proposal development. Our grant funding is complemented by income generating initiatives, through our income generating initiatives, we provide services for fees and sell products for revenue. We combine the integrated and external model for our income generating initiative. 

Thus far, we have received grant funding from the US Embassy in Nigeria, Catholic Relief Services and the Global funds awarded through competitive bidding processes that involved submission of concept paper and proposals. Through our income generating initiative, we have generated revenue while we have mobilized equity funding to run our business arms and to support our operations during periods when we don’t have grants funding running in the organization.