Poverty and social assessment study in 4 PSIG states

PSIG commissioned this study to help microfinance institutions establish their individual poverty outreach profiles and the socio economic profile of their clients. Insights from the study can assist partner MFIs to benchmark the various aspects of their clients ecosystem and use it as part of their strategy around building client centric operations. A total of 23 partner MFIs from 4 PSIG targeted states participated in the study and data from 18,900 MFI clients were collected during the survey. The key findings of the study confirmed the increased access of clients to account ownership, key financial products like insurance and pension, changing financial behaviour of clients, growing ownership of mobile phones and limited access to basic human rights services like water and sanitation. Recommendations include need for diversification of product range to include WATSAN and leveraging technology for shaping clients behaviour through IVR and messaging.