Fiw Topics
- Climate Change
- MSEs
FIW Year
- 2024
Transcripts:
Summary + Key Insights
The discussion focuses on financing MSMEs to strengthen their resilience against climate shocks in emerging markets, highlighting innovative solutions and the importance of collaboration.
- MSMEs’ Global Significance: MSMEs play a vital role in economic development, representing a large portion of businesses and providing significant employment. Their resilience is crucial for sustainable growth in emerging markets.
- Tailored Solutions for Unique Challenges: Startups like Abaco and Payhippo showcase how innovative financing can address the unique challenges of MSMEs, such as limited access to traditional credit and the impacts of climate change.
- Importance of Partnerships: Collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial institutions can enhance financial inclusion, enabling better access to capital for underserved MSMEs, ultimately fostering economic growth.
- Empowering MSMEs Against Climate Shocks: Financial support for MSMEs enables them to adapt to climate-related challenges, ensuring their sustainability and ability to operate effectively in adverse conditions.
- Investment Opportunities in Emerging Markets: Investing in climate-focused startups in Africa can yield substantial returns while addressing critical environmental and economic issues, highlighting the potential for impactful entrepreneurship.
- Listening to Customers: A customer-centric approach is essential for developing effective financial products that meet the needs of MSMEs, allowing for continuous improvement and scalability of solutions.
- Fostering Human Dignity: Supporting MSMEs through financing and innovation empowers individuals, enhances their agency, and promotes dignity, aligning economic growth with social responsibility.
This session summary was AI-generated using NoteGPT.
Climate change is here, and its effects are being felt across the globe, particularly by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets. These businesses, which make up 90% of global enterprises and provide up to 50% of jobs and income in their communities, are crucial for local economies. However, they face significant challenges in adapting to climate-related disruptions.
Research by Mercy Corps Ventures reveals that MSMEs are often underserved in key areas such as supply chain access, market information, and financial services. This lack of support limits their growth and resilience. In response, innovative startups are developing tech-enabled solutions to break down traditional barriers. For example, Abaco in El Salvador provides financing tailored to SMEs needs, while Payhippo in Nigeria offers financial products designed for the clean energy transition.
Join us for an in-depth discussion on how these innovators are addressing the specific needs of MSMEs. Discover the tools and services being developed to support these businesses in their efforts to build resilience against climate shocks. Learn from the experiences of MSMEs that have used these innovations to strengthen their operations. Let’s work together on how we can collectively strengthen resilience in emerging markets.