Report
Can Big Data Shape Financial Services in East Africa?
FiDA Focus Note
With the support of
As digital data created by users in Africa is growing, new opportunities to use “big data” to expand financial services are emerging.
This Focus Note summarizes how 30 leading organizations across Kenya and Tanzania are thinking about or actively using big data and analytics as they explore this space in digital finance. The findings are based on interviews with these organizations—which include banks, microfinance institutions, mobile network operators, and fintech organizations—conducted between August and September 2017. The interviews reveal that while players in East Africa do not exchange and profit from big data directly, there is a growing demand for traditional and big datasets.
The findings focus on the drivers affecting the use of big data and analytics and the potential for big data and analytics to enable organizations to better reach low-income and difficult to reach customers. Reflections and recommendations presented in this Focus Note can support organizations to take informed action with regard to the use of big data and analytics.
Contributors Marissa Dean, Annabel Schiff
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This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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