ESAF bags European Microfinance Award

ADVANS from Ivory Coast was announced as the winner. KMF from Kazakhstan has conferred the Runner-up position along with ESAF. 

Published: 18th November 2018 10:29 PM  |   Last Updated: 19th November 2018 08:46 AM   |  A+A-

By Express News Service

KOCHI: ESAF Small Finance Bank was chosen as the runner-up of the much coveted European Microfinance Award 2018 on the theme 'financial inclusion through technology' at the European Microfinance Week held at Luxembourg from November 14-16. This year’s award highlighted the role of technology in advancing financial inclusion.

ADVANS from Ivory Coast was announced as the winner. KMF from Kazakhstan has conferred the Runner-up position along with ESAF. 

The three finalists were selected from 27 applications received from 22 countries.
The runner-up award comprises of a certificate and prize money of €10,000 which is granted by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs-Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs while the event is jointly organised by the European Microfinance Platform and Inclusive Finance Network, Luxembourg.

ESAF SFB was commended by the Selection Committee for its huge outreach to over 2.5 million clients and its twin focus on back and front-end solutions. 

ESAF Small Finance Bank is leveraging the rapid expansion of mobile phone and smartphone penetration in India to digitise a wide range of its lending processes, including customer onboarding, electronic applications, customer financial training, credit appraisal, in-field verification, mandatory customer identity and address verification using eKYC. 

In addition, it also facilitates the opening of accounts, cashless disbursement and paperless collections of loan repayments. 

ESAF's field officers use Internet-equipped tablets with biometric identity verification along with the QR-enabled Aadhaar Cards, the Government of India's 12-digit unique identification number to ease off the process. Their details are automatically transmitted for credit bureau verification, and clients are given ATM cards to withdraw money from their convenient branches,” selection committee observed.

“I am very happy that ESAF SFB has become the runner-up for the prestigious European Microfinance Award 2018 with 10,000 prize money. We have been notified to International standard for its efforts in implementing financial inclusion through tab based technology among 2.5 million women across 12 states in India,” said K Paul Thomas, CEO, ESAF.
¤10,000
is the prize money granted by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs-Development Cooperation



Comments

Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress.com editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks. Try to avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines.

The views expressed in comments published on newindianexpress.com are those of the comment writers alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of newindianexpress.com or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of The New Indian Express Group, or any entity of, or affiliated with, The New Indian Express Group. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time.

flipboard facebook twitter whatsapp