For most microfinance institutions, digital financial services is a completely new type of business. While potentially offering benefits and opportunities to provider and customers alike, DFS are far from the MFIs core areas of expertise and comfort zone. Few MFIs have clear enough visibility of the options and implications of digital strategies to readily determine which is best suited to their particular circumstances. The encouraging news, shared in this Field Note, is that new research indicates that a number of MFIs in Sub-Saharan Africa are starting to get to grips with the challenges of deploying DFS, and are on the path to success.
