Guillaume Gnankou founded Gnank Inspiration, in the Abidjan neighborhood of M'pouto in 2017. Today, Miss Gnankou has grown that business to include one full-time employee and another part-time, two stalls, and offers the company's services online as well as with home deliveries through external service providers. Advans, Côte d’Ivoire’s third largest microfinance institution (MFI) with a focus on digitization, provided her an opportunity to access formal financial services and build up assets.
Client Stories
Move from Cash to Online Payments Helps Beauty Entrepreneurs Grow Business in West Africa
In charge of the technical and digital arm of e-commerce store Fabellashop, entrepreneur Felix Simaki decided to use PayDunya’s WebPay service to facilitate orders paid by credit cards and mobile money accounts. PayDunya is an online payments platform in Senegal founded in 2015 by four young tech… Read more
July 1, 2021
Finja and Unilever Partner to Digitize Supply Chain Payments in Pakistan
Muhammad Abid Islam, owner of the New Waseem General Store at Ghalib Market in Lahore, had problems with his staff that resulted in a financial loss last year. So, he decided to cut ties with his employees and manage the business end-to-end on his own.
To recuperate his losses, Mr. Abid Islam, a… Read more
January 17, 2020
Mobile Wallets: The Newest Tool for Beauticians at a Pakistani Startup
Safia Javed, a 48-year-old beautician and mother of three sons in Lahore, has been the lone breadwinner in her family since her husband experienced renal failure several years ago and can no longer work. However, being responsible for earning the money to support her family did not mean she was… Read more
January 16, 2020
Financial Inclusion and Job Skills Transform the Lives of Women in Bangladesh
For Bangladesh’s poorest women, the roadblocks to earn and save money have traditionally been high. A government program supported by UNDP known as SWAPNO (Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities) aims to lower those barriers.
Implemented under the national social security… Read more
December 18, 2019
New Digital Platforms Expand Financial Options for Rural Dwellers in Bangladesh
When the UNSGSA last visited Bangladesh in 2015, she met rural residents who had just started to access financial services for the first time—along with vital government services and basic internet—due to an ambitious government program called Access to Information (a2i). Since, a2i has built on… Read more
December 16, 2019
Early Lessons from the CEO Partnership for Economic Inclusion
By Eric Duflos and Nancy Widjaja
A few months after the leaders of the CEO Partnership for Economic Inclusion (CEOP) met for the second time in Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF), we spent two days working with the companies’ advisors to advance… Read more
May 23, 2019
Blog: Doing Business While Doing Good: CEOs Partner to Boost Inclusion
Members of the CEOP met privately to discuss their progress, and also participated in a public event about the initiative.
By Eric Duflos Read more
February 15, 2019
Blog: For Tanzanian Farmers, Digital Platform Strengthens Every Link in the Value Chain
Tanzanian farmer Martha Emanuel Talanju. Photo credit: Sebnem Sener
By Sebnem Sener
Over the past three years, Tanzanian farmer Martha Emanuel Talanju has seen her business growing steadily thanks to a value-chain financing program from the Farm to Market… Read more
January 8, 2019
Innovation Serving Tradition: India Stack Meets Mumbai’s Dabbawalas
Vilash and other dabbawalas can now collect instant digital payments for delivering hundreds of thousands of home-cooked lunches every day. Photo credit: UNSGSA/Ruhani Kaur
Everyone’s talking about the India Stack these days, but what does it mean for real… Read more
September 28, 2018
Blog: On the Fast Track to Digital Financial Inclusion with Indonesia’s Go-Jek
By Nancy Widjaja
Anywhere you look in Jakarta these days, you’ll see the bright green helmet and jacket of a Go-Jek motorbike driver carving a path down the crowded streets. Established in 2010 as a ride-hailing service, Go-Jek has become a ubiquitous presence in Indonesia’s cities. Through the… Read more
June 8, 2018
Casting a Wider Net: Digital Loan Helps Nigerian Fish-Seller Expand Her Business
Tucked away in the bustling Ijesha Market in Lagos, Flora Edojah’s small catfish stall seems as humble as its quiet owner. Yet waters run deep with the 53-year-old businesswoman—and not just in her catfish pens. With 30 years of experience and a strong entrepreneurial drive, she is a successful… Read more
May 19, 2018
Blog: In Nigeria, New Horizons for Digital Financial Inclusion
By Eric Duflos and Sebnem Sener
Last November we were in Nigeria with H.M. Queen Máxima, the Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance, for a visit focusing on financial inclusion. Thanks to our partners in Nigeria and beyond, we arrived with a good understanding of how far the… Read more
March 15, 2018
