> Posted by Center Staff
The Citi Foundation released a groundbreaking report yesterday titled “Bridging the Gap: The Business Case for Financial Capability”. To celebrate the release of the study, Graham Macmillan, Senior Program Officer for Citi Foundation, shared a post on NextBillion’s blog.
The post begins as follows:
The fact that between 500 million and 800 million of the world’s poor have gained access to finance in recent years is a significant accomplishment. But 25 percent or less of these individuals have received any form of financial training that would help them make informed decisions about their borrowing, their savings and their entire financial future. This lack of instruction represents the “financial capability gap,” which is both massive and rapidly growing.
Addressing it is an urgent priority for the field. It’s the reason why today we are releasing Bridging the Gap: The Business Case for Financial Capability.
This study, commissioned by the Citi Foundation and researched by the Monitor Group & Partners for Sustainable Development, seeks to understand what is needed to strengthen the client capability side of financial inclusion efforts.
Increasingly, financial inclusion is defined as a balanced approach of providing access to appropriate financial products and services, while ensuring clients have the skills, knowledge, and understanding how to best use the products and services. Without this balance, financial inclusion efforts are at best ineffective, or at worst, risk-provoking.
To read the entire blog post on NextBillion, click here
Image credit: nextbillion.net
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