Spotlight on: Beyond Access
We know that what women value is not simply access to finance, but access to opportunity. That means combining financial products with timely information, business and financial education, networking and recognition. The challenge for our members is not whether to offer these non-financial services, but how to prioritize and deliver them at scale.
Mentoring is one of the most valued forms of support, sitting between self-paced digital learning and resource-intensive one-to-one consulting. Yet scaling mentoring has long been a challenge. That is why our latest Alliance Central Bank Exchange (CBX) featured Digital Boost, an innovative UK platform that is showing how it can be done.
Founded by Karen Licurse during the COVID-19 pandemic, and supported by Alliance member NatWest, Digital Boost now connects 47,000 entrepreneurs with 7,000 volunteer mentors. Women make up 64% of mentees, while 48% come from ethnic minority communities. By working through trusted local partners, the platform reaches entrepreneurs who are often hardest to engage. Entrepreneurs choose the support they need, are matched with a mentor, and schedule sessions through a simple, free platform.
With an outstanding Net Promoter Score of 74, Digital Boost is also generating valuable data on entrepreneurs’ needs. Business strategy remains the most common request, while marketing, AI adoption, hiring, data protection and compliance, and website development are among the leading specialist topics. These insights and many more are integrated to offer ever more effective program. With a relatively low cost white label platform Digital Boost is ready to be replicated elsewhere. Learn more about Digital Boost and the Alliance CBX here.
Looking ahead, we are preparing for the expansion of the WE Finance Code, with aims to double the number of countries from 30 to 60 over 2027–2028. The Alliance continues to support We-Fi through the Community of Champions (CoC), a network of more than 320 senior leaders across financial institutions, central banks, governments and development partners. The next virtual session takes place on 10 September, followed by the annual in-person meeting at the OECD in Paris (1–2 October), where discussions will focus on strengthening the collection, reporting and use of sex-disaggregated data. More on the CoC here.
This month we also heard the latest updates from Bangladesh Bank and the Bank of Uganda on their Women’s Financial Inclusion Data (WFID) dashboards. Bangladesh has expanded its dashboard to include insurance and capital markets data, while Uganda shared pioneering analysis of gender differences in remittance flows—both generating important new insights into women’s financial inclusion. Find out more here.
We are also delighted to publish a new case study on Bank al Etihad, whose success in Women’s Markets began by becoming an employer of choice for women. By introducing equal benefits for male and female employees—including family health insurance—and embedding gender-inclusive workplace policies, the bank has grown to a workforce that is 46% women, three times Jordan’s national female labour force participation rate. That internal transformation has underpinned equally impressive results in serving women customers. Read the case study here.
Finally, don’t miss this month’s Network News Roundup, highlighting how Alliance members continue to innovate and strengthen Women’s Markets programs across our global network.
Thank you to all our members and strategic partners for your continued commitment to advancing women’s financial inclusion and for the leadership you bring to our Alliance community.
In community,
