Our Regional Partners in Strengthening Access to Affordable Remittances

UNCDF Migrant Money works with a range of public and private sector partners, in different geographies and from different segments of the financial and technology sectors, on ambitious projects to address the challenges faced by migrants and their families in accessing affordable remittances and financial services.

These are regulators, regional economic communities, financial service providers, consulting firms, academia, and research and advocacy partners, who are working on solutions that include:

  • Improving laws and regulations to enable risk-based remittance policies and regional cooperation to further market competition and innovation while guarding against risks to financial stability.
  • Designing and implementing digital remittance and financial services that match the actual needs and preferences of women and men migrants in the local economy.
  • Collecting, analyzing and disseminating reliable and comparable data and research to strengthen the global evidence base and solutions that address limited access to affordable remittances and financial services for migrants.

Explore Our Partnerships

We are continually growing our partnerships to expand and improve remittances and related services for migrant households—and update this section frequently as new projects are launched. If you are interested in partnering with our team, contact migrantmoney@uncdf.org

Private Sector

SympliFi

Working In: UK
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
With support from UNCDF, SympliFi is implementing the digital migrant-backed loan project that allows migrants based in the UK and EU to help their relatives back home access credit locally for income generating uses, instead of sending remittances. They serve as guarantors by providing a cash collateral on the loan so that their relatives can access affordable credit from a Microfinance Institution (MFI) in their home country.
SimplyFi is a digital lending platform that provides migrants with the possibility to guarantee loans in their home country for themselves or family. Its mission is to empower migrants to improve the livelihood of their families back home, beyond just sending remittances.
Private Sector

BRAC Bank

Working In: Bangladesh
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
With support from UNCDF, BRAC Bank is implementing multiple digital remittance channels including Visa Direct, Cash-to Digital, its own end-to-end digital remittance channels, and improving the UI/UX of their subsidiary digital remittance channel, BRAC Saajan. As part of the project, UNCDF has facilitated the Bank to create an ecosystem of remittance partners across the host countries by integrating through a digital remittance aggregator, RippleNet. The project also focused on improving the scale and usage of its two existing digital remittance solutions: direct account credit and direct bKash (mobile wallet) credit, as well as onboarding a new mobile wallet partner, through financial literacy, incentive designs and capacity building.
BRAC Bank is a private commercial bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The bank is primarily focused on low-income customers, including small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Private Sector

RAKBANK / Edenred

Working In: UAE
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
UNCDF’s collaboration with RAKBANK and Edenred aims to improve the access to and usage of the digital remittance channel through C3Pay – Edenred’s solution that enables migrants to receive their wages digitally. UNCDF technical assistance extends to market research, business strategy, transaction data analysis, marketing and communication, financial literacy, and migrant-centred and gender-smart product design and strategy.
RAKBANK (National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah) (P.S.C.) is a bank in the United Arab Emirates. Together with its partner Edenred, RAKBANK aims to expand digital remittances and financial services among blue-collar migrant workers, particularly foreign domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates, targeting the sending corridors to these six countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Private Sector

TerraPay

Working In: Netherlands
Key Topic: Open Digital Payment Ecosystem
In Congo, UNCDF supports the implementation and operationalization of CongoPay, the first interoperable domestic payment infrastructure, built and operated by TerraPay. It creates payments interoperability for individuals, businesses and merchants, provides universal acceptance of different payment instruments, and fosters affordable access to international remittances in the country.
TerraPay is a licensed digital payments infrastructure and solutions company helping connect diverse payment systems seamlessly to move funds in real-time.
Private Sector

SentBe

Working In: South Korea
Key Topic: Empowered Customers
With support from UNCDF, SentBe developed, tested and deployed a financial health programme for migrant workers from three target countries: Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal.
SentBe is an inclusive global cross-border financial services platform that aims to eliminate inefficiency in cross-border finance for the underserved by thinking outside traditional business models.
Private Sector

Wizall Money

Working In: Senegal
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
With support from UNCDF, Wizall Money aims to improve lives of migrants and their families in four countries of the West Africa region (Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal) by improving its remittance linked products: Wallet remittance termination, Nanocredit for migrants and their families, and Insurance for migrant family members.
Wizall Money is a fintech start-up that has implemented an electronic wallet to manage electronic money. Its strength lies with the digital wage payments and Government-to-Person (G2P) social payments.
Thought Partners

PwC

Working In: Côte d'Ivoire
Key Topic: Open Digital Payment Ecosystem
In partnership with UNCDF, PricewaterhouseCoopers is supporting the BCEAO to identify an approach to setup a single system for identifying financial service users in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The Single Identification System for Financial Service Users will offer an opportunity to increase the use of electronic means of payment and help to improve financial inclusion.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwC). PwC provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders.
Private Sector

Lion International Bank

Working In: Ethiopia
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
With support from UNCDF, Lion International Bank is piloting a new service, the Smart Micro Remittance Channel. The proposed solution is a digital remittance-linked product that allows migrants to access online payment. The project focuses on expanding the use of digital remittance services in the corridors of Ethiopia, Djibouti, the European Union, the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Lion International Bank (LIB) is a privately owned share company in Ethiopia. LIB mainly provides deposits, credit management, international banking, agent, and mobile banking services.
Thought Partners

Harvard Kennedy School

Working In: USA
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF partnered with Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education and Evidence for Policy Design to deliver ‘Migrant Remittances and Financial Services’, a new executive education programme targeting three groups of stakeholder: (i) policymakers and regulators whose mandates relate to migration, remittances and financial inclusion, (ii) leaders from remittance service providers, banks and other relevant private-sector providers, and (iii) representatives of multilateral organizations and other non-governmental actors.
Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) mission is to prepare leaders for service in democratic societies. In 2022, HKS trained UNCDF's public- and private-sector partners on how to apply its Smart Policy Design & Implementation (SPDI) methodology to harness the power of remittances to drive financial inclusion.
Thought Partners

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) / University of Michigan, Ford School of Public Policy

Working In: USA
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
With support from UNCDF, IPA is delivering a client-level impact research on digital remittances and financial service innovations for migrants and their families. The impact research will fill this knowledge gap in research that hinders remittance service providers (RSPs) and policy makers in reaching the ‘last mile’, where migrants and recipients in host and origin countries rely greatly on these income flows.
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy non-profit that designs and evaluates potential solutions to global poverty problems. IPA works with practitioners, investors, policymakers, and donors working with the low-income people to design and implement impact evaluations to measure the effectiveness of programmes and policies aimed at helping vulnerable populations, and it also mobilizes and supports these decision-makers to use evidence-based solutions to build better programs and policies at scale through partnerships with government and development organizations.
Thought Partners

KIT Royal Tropical Institute / Butterfly Works / Aflatoun

Working In: Netherlands
Key Topic: Empowered Customers
In a co-creation exercise with UNCDF and in partnership with Butterfly Works and Aflatoun, KIT will conduct data analytics for demand side assessment, lean data survey, qualitative research using human-centred design techniques, and develop a migrant-centric, gender-responsive, remittance-focused HCD toolkit and a digital financial literacy toolkit on inclusive digital remittances and financial service innovation for migrants and their families.
KIT Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) is an independent centre of expertise and education for sustainable development. The institute assists private corporations, governments, and NGOs around the world to build inclusive and sustainable societies, informing best practices and measuring their impact.
Private Sector

Lucy PTA

Working In: Singapore
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
The project between UNCDF and Lucy will offer financial services to Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore, 100 percent of whom are women. The project will also open corridors for migrant workers across Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia to send remittances through Rapyd, a digital cross-border remittance platform.
Lucy is a financial services technology company that empowers women in Singapore and Asia.
Thought Partners

Haske Conseil

Working In: Senegal
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
In a co-creation exercise, UNCDF and Dalberg SURL have developed a migrant-centred and gender-responsive framework to guide the inclusive innovation strategies of RSPs. The framework has three components: (i) templates for country assessment of the remittance ecosystem and value chain, (ii) guidelines and capacity-building tools for RSPs and FSPs on how to do inclusive innovation within the specific context of digital remittances and remittance-linked financial products, and (iii) templates for drafting country-specific roadmaps on how to leverage innovation in the remittance ecosystem through financial and technical support. The framework has been applied and tested in four countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal and Senegal.
Dalberg SURL is a registered company in Senegal, linked to Dalberg Group. Dalberg Group is a leading consulting group that includes six different businesses that provide strategic, policy and investment advice to key institutions, corporations and governments, working collaboratively to address pressing global problems and to generate positive social impact.
Thought Partners

MSC Consulting

Working In: Singapore
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
As part of the migrant financial resilience project, MSC is working towards creating country readiness assessments for migrant insurance and pension. The institution is also providing curated technical assistance support to the UNCDF implementation partners towards design and deployment of migrant insurance and pension innovations in an inclusive manner.
MSC (MicroSave Consulting) is a global consulting firm that enables social, financial, and economic inclusion for everyone in the digital age.
Thought Partners

Glenbrook Partners

Working In: USA
Key Topic: Open Digital Payment Ecosystem
Glenbrook Partners is a dedicated strategy consulting and advisory firm offering deep insights into how the payments industry is evolving and how advantages can be gleaned from this changing environment.
Thought Partners

Amarante Consulting

Working In: Headquartered in the UAE
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF has hired Amarante Consulting to research the remittance policy and regulatory framework in 44 countries and to develop a digital remittances policy reference guide.
Amarante Consulting provides advisory and technical assistance for digital market-based solutions.
Public Sector

IGAD

Working In: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF and IGAD are implementing the project on the harmonization of remittance policies across the IGAD countries. The key to this initiative is to help harmonize the different policy and regulatory frameworks governing remittances and to create coherent frameworks to support the flow of remittances to and within the IGAD region. The efforts pursued by UNCDF, under the leadership of IGAD, will strengthen the capacity of central banks and other government stakeholders, which will in turn promote increased remittance flows through formal channels and contribute to the implementation of IGAD’s migration action plan, including its specific strategic priorities on remittances.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a merger of currently seven states in the Horn of Africa, namely Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda.
Public Sector

ECCAS

Working In: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Commission are working to expand affordable and convenient access to digital remittances in the region through the regional harmonization of remittance policies project. UNCDF is interacting with several key public-sector stakeholders in the region, including ECCAS, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, CEMAC, through its central bank Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale, or BEAC, and the central banks of non-CEMAC-member countries in the region.
The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is an economic community of the African Union for promotion of regional economic cooperation in Central Africa. It aims to achieve collective autonomy, raise the standard of living of its populations, and maintain economic stability through harmonious cooperation.
Public Sector

ECOWAS

Working In: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are working to expand affordable and convenient access to digital remittances in the region. The efforts pursued by UNCDF will strengthen the capacity of central banks and other government stakeholders, including the supply side.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa.
Public Sector

BCEAO

Working In: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
Following the cooperation between BCEAO and UNCDF on a feasibility study for setting up a single ID system for all financial services users, to advance and facilitate the end-to-end digitization of cross-border money transfers and related financial services, UNCDF technical assistance has further expanded, at the request of BCEAO, to the following areas: Policy and regulations; Remittance transaction analysis and reporting systems; and training and capacity-building to enhance the learning of the stakeholders involved in remittances.
The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is the regional central bank of the eight West African Economic and Monetary Union member countries (Benin, Brukina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo). It is mandated to centralize forex reserves, conduct the monetary policy and oversee financial institutions. It has headquarters in Dakar, Senegal.
Public Sector

National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)

Working In: Ethiopia
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF is working closely with the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and other government stakeholders to increase policymakers’ and regulators’ capacities to improve the existing remittance-related regulatory framework, the payment infrastructure and innovative product development. The efforts aim to lower remittance costs, improve cross-border remittance flows through formal channels, and expand the use of digital channels for receipt.
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is the central bank of Ethiopia. Its headquarters are in the capital city of Addis Ababa.
Private Sector

IME Digital

Working In: Nepal
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
UNCDF partnered with IME Digital Solution Limited (IME Pay) to cooperate in areas of mutual interest towards generating migrant customer insights that are informing the development of products and policies in the remittance sector and sharing of insights with a wider set of industry stakeholders through external publications.
IME Digital Solution is a subsidiary of IME Group, a business conglomerate with investments in banking, remittance, trading, IT, communications and insurance.
Thought Partners

Kapronasia

Working In: Singapore
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
UNCDF and Kapronasia are working on a research project to identify strategies for digitization of wages/salaries for migrant workers.
Kapronasia is a leading independent research and consulting firm helping financial institutions, technology vendors, consultancies and private equity firms to understand the impact of business, technology and regulatory issues on banking, payments, insurance and the capital markets.
Thought Partners

AfricaNenda

Working In: Kenya
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
UNCDF and AfricaNenda are promoting joint technical assistance and learning products for regional harmonization of cross-border payments and digital financial services. The collaboration is focusing on building data and research capacity for generating evidence-based decisions to inform regulation and guide policy priorities for regional harmonization of cross-border payments, while also bringing about exposure to global practices and cross-border payment trends and technology.
AfricaNenda is an African-led team of experts committed to unlocking the potential of digital financial services for the financially excluded across the continent by accelerating the scale-up of instant and inclusive payments systems.
Thought Partners

A2ii

Working In: Germany
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
The collaboration of UNCDF and A2ii aims to leverage the network (at global, regional and country level) of policy think-tanks, regulators, supervisors, industry chambers, insurance conglomerates, reinsurers, and pension fund managers to integrate migrant insurance and pensions into existing remittance channels through designing migrant-centric, gender-responsive insurance and pension products through human-centred design (HCD) approaches. Specifically, A2ii facilitates identfying scope and opportunities to create a global and regional network for policy advocacy on migrant financial resilience, and collaborates with UNCDF on in-depth assessment of country regulations and policy paradigms around migrant financial resilience (social protection, insurance, pension). The institution also facilitates in policy advocacy and regulatory innovation around migrant insurance.
The Access to Insurance (A2ii), as an implementation partner to International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), is a unique global partnership working to ensure that the world’s excluded and underserved have access to insurance, allowing them to take control of their lives and reduce their vulnerability against risks. The A2ii does this by supporting insurance supervisors and regulators to create the conditions necessary for an inclusive insurance market to grow.
Public Sector

Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale, BEAC

Working In: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
The Bank of Central African States is a central bank that serves six central African countries which form the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa. The six central African countries are: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo.
Public Sector

Nepal Rastra Bank

Working In: Nepal
Key Topic: Enabling Policy and Regulations
Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the Central Bank of Nepal, was established in 1956 under the Nepal Rastra Bank Act, 1955, to discharge the central banking responsibilities including guiding the development of the embryonic domestic financial sector.
Public Sector

Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, Government of Bangladesh

Working In: Bangladesh
Key Topic: Inclusive Innovation
UNCDF has partnered with the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEW&OE), Government of Bangladesh, to assess the outreach and gender responsiveness of Probashi Kormi Bima to guide capacity-building interventions and technical assistance needed for improved design, processes and effectiveness of the scheme.UNCDF and the Ministry will work closely towards further improvement of the product, its delivery and operations through global dialogues and benchmarking, advanced data analytics on product performance, capacity building on gender mainstreaming and migrant-centric designs, qualitative and quantitative research on the nature of demand and migrant experience, and process reengineering for better outreach and effectiveness of the policy contributing to improved financial resilience of the migrants and their family members from Bangladesh.
The main objective of the Ministry is to ensure welfare of the expatriate workers and enhancement of overseas employment with a principle of equal opportunity for the people of all areas of the country. To that end, the Minsitry is responsible for formulating policies, plans, enacting laws, rules and regulations, developing projects, programmes and monitoring, relating to the management of overseas employment as well as overall welfare of expatriate workers.