Digitalization and Credit Scoring for Women SMES Webinar Series

The webinar series, "Digitalization and Credit Scoring for Women SMEs," aimed to provide practical knowledge on gender, alternative data, and insights on credit scoring for financial institutions, with discussants Dean Caire, a credit scoring specialist, and Steven Landman, a fintech expert. The first installment in December 2021 explored the basics of credit scoring, while the second in January tackled the technical challenges.

Gender Month 2022: Women Leading Towards An Equal, Greener and More Resilient Future

Empowering women to participate fully in economic and social life is essential to building strong economies, establishing stable and just societies, and improving the quality of life for men, women, and our communities.

Under ADB’s Strategy 2030, gender equality is one of seven operational priorities. By 2030, 75% of committed projects and programs will promote gender equality.

Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala

Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala is a women's rights activist with 18 years of experience in the field of women's rights and gender equality. She holds a MA in Gender Studies from Sussex University (UK), and a post graduate diploma in Women’s Studies from Colombo University. In 2016, she became the first Sri Lankan (male or female) to summit Mount Everest. In recognition of this achievement, from 2016-2019 she was appointed the Goodwill Ambassador for Women's Rights by the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Sri Lanka.

Laura Crow

Laura is part of M-Pesa Africa’s Product team responsible for designing and rolling out platforms which the 7 M-Pesa markets can commercialise. Her focus within the team is to develop the product strategy, set the commercial priorities, drive thought leadership and specify the features and performance metrics for M-Pesa’s offerings in credit, savings, wealth management, and financial education with a particular interest in ensuring these products cater for the rural segment, especially in agriculture.

Sucharita Mukherjee

Sucharita is passionate about good finance for all. She is the co-founder and CEO of Kaleidofin, a neo-bank that provides intuitive and tailored financial solutions to over a million underbanked customers in India. Prior to this, she co-founded the IFMR group and most recently was the group CEO of IFMR Holdings. She conceptualized and founded Northern Arc Capital, building capital markets access for financial inclusion and Northern Arc Investments, an alternatives fund management platform focused on informal sector finance.

Rachel Freeman

Tyme is the technology and solutions firm powering Tyme Bank, the first digital bank in South Africa with now 3 million customers. Rachel Freeman is an experienced and internationally recognized financial expert, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion and innovative financial technologies. Before joining Tyme, Ms. Freeman served as the IFC Financial Institutions Advisory Manager for Asia since 2014.