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Advisory services
for digital pioneers
in emerging markets

Advisory services for digital pioneers in emerging markets

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Ulana Insights
Services

The  less  money  a  person  has the  more  time  they  must  spend  managing  it.    Well-designed  financial  services  not  only  help  people  save  when  they  can  and  borrow  what  they  need,  but  also  pay  school  fees,  put  food  on  the  table,  and  deal  with  medical  emergencies.    Financial  services  can  significantly  improve  the quality of one’s life,  and technological innovation is  bringing  their  benefits  to  more  rural  and  low-income  people  around  the  world.

The  work  at  Ulana  Insights  is  to  support  the  development  and  distribution  of  useful  financial  services  to  people  across  the  developing  world. This  includes strategy  and  policy  work  with  governments,  donor  organizations,  financial institutions,  technology companies and  consulting  firms.

However,  Ulana  Insights  also  recognizes  that  innovation  sprouts  from  small  companies  with  big  ideas  and  is  engaged  in  a  significant  amount  of  advisory  work  for  fintech  start-ups.    As  these  digital  finance  systems  have  become  relevant  to  adjacent  sectors,  the  focus  of  the  work  has  expanded  to  cover  agricultural  fintech,  PAYG  solar,  digital  humanitarian  cash  transfers,  and  adaptive  learning  platforms.

Advisory Services

The  majority  of  the  work  at  Ulana  Insights  is  advising clients on  policy  and  strategic  operations.    The  policy  work  is  generally  done  with  regulators  who  would  like  to  create  enabling  ecosystems  for  innovation  or  national  financial  inclusion  strategies.  Work  with  technology  companies,  banks,  and  telecoms  focuses  on  developing  new  value  propositions  and  building  the  appropriate  channels  for  their  delivery.

Publications

Clients  include  donors  and  consulting  firms  commissioning  technical  publications  to  advance  industry  knowledge  and  build  positions  of  thought  leadership, as well as  private  sector  firms  needing  market  research  and  competitive  analyses  to  inform  their strategies.    Ulana  Insights  manages  both  quantitative  and  qualitative  research  to  provide  either  bespoke  business  intelligence  or  landmark  publications.

Training

The  interactions  of  public  sector  policies  and  private  sector  strategies in converging industries advancing at the pace of technology means  there  is  always  a  lot  to  learn.    Trainings  are  generally  for  groups  of  10-20  professionals  and  range  from  introductory  sessions  in  digital  finance,  to  more  advanced  topics  in  financial  innovation,  distribution  in  developing  countries,  digital  product  development,  and  start-up  strategies.

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Client List

A modern
approach to
international
development

A modern approach to international development

International
Field Work

Customized Solutions from
a World of Experience

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Ulana
Field Work Locations

Sub-Saharan Africa:Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Somalia

Asia:India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

MENA:Jordan

South Pacific:Fiji Islands, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Kingdom of Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia

Latin America:Bolivia

Supporting the development
and distribution of useful
financial services to people
across the developing world

Supporting the development and distribution of useful financial services to people across the developing world

Ulana Insights

Past
Projects

Humanitarian Mobile Money Trainings

This project designed two trainings on mobile money cash and voucher assistance (CVA) for humanitarian crises. They highlight key points from past research and guides both mobile money operators and humanitarian agencies to understand the opportunity for mobile money to improve CVA and the need for stronger strategic partnerships to scale its use.

Training

Digital Platforms for Small Pacific Businesses

Medium small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Fiji employ 80% and 60% of the work forces respectively. Digital platforms like Facebook and Alibaba are disrupting how MSMEs can be launched and managed, and this research investigated the opportunities and challenges for scaling these platforms in the Pacific.

Advisory Services

Indonesia Fintech & Finclusion Intelligence

Indonesia has the 4th largest unbanked population and one of the most dynamic emerging fintech ecosystems in the world. I authored market intelligence report on how donors and policymakers can support fintech solutions to meaningfully contribute to financial inclusion in Indonesia.

Advisory Services

Acumen Social Innovation Challenge Curriculum

One of the focal issues of the social innovation challenge is financial inclusion. I provided insights to their training curriculum on the major challenges the sector is facing and how social entrepreneurs can design solutions to them across the developing world. These include fintech solutions, digital/financial education efforts and products that offer more value than a bank account to low-income customers.

Advisory Services

PAYG Solar for Refugees in Uganda

Mercy Corps wanted to better understand the opportunity for using Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) technologies to finance solar lighting systems for households in Ugandan refugee settlements.  I also traveled to the West Nile region and conducted interviews, observations, and focus groups in Arua, Rhino Camp and Bidi Bidi Settlement.

Advisory Services

Mobile Money CVA Operations Handbook

The core message of the research is that most humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) programs desire a payments system with greater geographic reach, higher-levels of customer service, and more advanced technology (like biometrics) than what is available, and partnerships with mobile money providers are needed to build more customized offerings.

Advisory ServicesPublications

Kiva Future of Finance Training

I prepared an hour long training session for Kiva interns on the future of financial inclusion, called Modern Microfinance, Mobile money and Fintech. The focus of the session was on how technology has lowered the cost of reaching customers through mobile money and agent banking systems, but has not yet led to very deep usage of digital finance systems. 

Training

Mobile Money Guidance for Humanitarians

The publication helps humanitarian practitioners understand the infrastructure needed for mobile money, the regulations which govern it, and the competitive advantages it has for delivering humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA).  However, it also points out that mobile money systems are not used by the vulnerable populations CVA targets, and rarely extend to rural areas like refugee settlements.

Publications
All Past Projects

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MIKE McCAFFREY
Financial Technology Adviser
mike@ulana-insights.com

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