Producing a comprehensive landscape report on bank and non-bank agent models

Despite progress in the past few years, Mozambique has lagged behind its neighbors in expanding financial inclusion, particularly in peri-urban and rural areas. While leveraging agents (such as small shops and pharmacies) offer promise, the Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Mozambique team – a local market facilitator whose aim is to drive financial inclusion – felt there was a lack of public information on the topic. It hired Digital Disruptions to conduct a thorough analysis of agent models and write a public report for the industry.

Approach & Outcome

The Digital Disruptions team began by investigating the perspectives of banks, non-banks, and the country’s regulators on various agent models. In addition, we ascertained the types of findings that would be most relevant to them in a public report.

From there, we conducted detailed secondary research, including global case studies, emerging trends, and country statistics. We brought in our international frameworks on understanding different types of bank models for agents and how these contrast with non-banks such as mobile operators.

To bring in the user point-of-view, we also interviewed customers and agents in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas in two provinces of the country on their needs for basic financial services.  Lastly, we conducted a deep-dive into Mozambique’s existing regulatory environment.

The result was a comprehensive report that both served both as a go-to reference document for the industry and provided strategic and tactical recommendations to service providers and the country’s central bank.