THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ESAF Small Finance Bank from India has been selected as one of the three finalists for the European Microfinance Award 2018 on the theme “Financial Inclusion through Technology”. ESAF will go on to compete for the Rs 100,000 prize along with Advans CI of Ivory Coast and KMF of Kazakhstan.
“ESAF SFB has been notified to International standard for its efforts in implementing financial inclusion through tab based technology among 23 lakh women across 12 states in India” said K Paul Thomas, founder, ESAF. The theme of this year’s award is to highlight the role of technology in advancing financial inclusion. This also shows how technology-enabled services and solutions can help financial service providers such as micro-finance institutions.
From 22 countries, 27 organizations had applied for the awards of which two successive committees of experts against a rigorous evaluation framework produced the three finalists from a list of 10 semi-finalists. The three finalists were selected for implementing different technology initiatives towards a variety of challenges.
The winner will be chosen from the three finalists by a High Jury, which will be announced on November 15 at European Investment Bank, Luxembourg, during European Micro-finance Week. The European Micro-finance Award was launched in October 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs – Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, to support innovative thinking in the micro-finance sector.