About DiFiforAll

DiFi for All is a qualitative research study and the result of a collaborative effort between research partners BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (Bangladesh), Somia CX (Indonesia), and Three Stones International (Uganda), led by Quicksand (India). This project was made possible through the funding and support of the Gates Foundation.

Support | Guiding and gatekeeping through Digital Financial Services

Digital products and services are often designed for self use. They should be smart, intuitive and easy to follow. But the ground reality is rarely so. We all rely on some form of human advice or approval when we opt for a new technology or gadget. It is the same for marginalised groups only more so. In this episode we explain how they are supported by an ecosystem of people who help them in a formal and informal capacity at every stage of the digital journey. They play the roles of an educator, interpreter, cheerleader and more to work around  the deep-rooted problems of poor infrastructure, literacy, and fear – in that they are the true drivers of inclusion.

Agents

Many service providers employ agents to reach the last mile because they know the importance of human interaction in technology. These agents often belong to the region they serve and are therefore more attuned to people’s needs, preferences, and best interests. It is unpretentious - men, women, young or old, anyone can take up the job as long as they deliver.

John has been a mobile money agent for ten plus years in this mining community at Kampala, and his customers swear by his honesty because he offers the right price for his services unlike the others who charge more to cover up for their losses.

There is a disparity in how innovation is distributed too. There are hardly any agents for newer fintech in rural areas, and people continue to use USSD and other basic services to merely send, receive, and manage money. They don’t have access to a wider array of services that includes lending and credit.

There are efforts to bridge the urban-rural divide. India has taken an intersectoral approach and employed Banking Correspondents or BC Sakhis to reach women in villages and remote areas. These agents provide information, practical help, and encouragement to not only increase the reach of DF but its usage too.

But we need to think about their training and professional development too. They need the right knowledge, tools, and support to resolve any hold-ups as they arise on the field.

Salima Begum works in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. She is very successful in her community because she goes out of her way to help them. This is an example of a WhatsApp group she set up for women, on DF. But during one of the onboardings we observed how she and her supervisor could not address this error message because it was only provided in English.

This is not to make a uni-dimensional case for agents and other forms of human support. We have seen how their biases can hinder service delivery too.

For instance, Violet was turned away by an agent because of her skin colour in Uganda. Self-use is a safer option for people like her who are at risk of being disrespected or discriminated against by service providers. We have covered a few examples on how people help themselves later in the episode but it is worthwhile to turn our attention to Indonesia for now.

In-app Instructions

In Indonesia, everyone is expected to sign up for digital services themselves – it is the norm. Agents are rare.

This reduces the cost for service providers but the user experience can be severely compromised if the text is jargon-heavy and inconsistent. We saw several examples where English was mixed up with Bahasa Indonesia, the local language.

Youtube

When the instructions are not clear, and there is no one to ask, people turn to the Internet for help.

We followed Sitara’s story in Osmanabad, Maharashtra. She looked up her queries on YouTube when she and her companion, Surabhi, couldn’t understand why they weren’t able to register for a digital payments account. YouTube is particularly user-friendly, offering visual content in various languages and styles.

Civil Society Organisations

We have also observed how Civil Society Organisations step in to help marginalised groups with digital finance.

We met one such group in Pune, Maharashtra – they were helping people with their documentation and paperwork to apply for social welfare schemes. These stakeholders are particularly driven by the values of social justice, equity, and altruism. They often go the whole mile to ensure that DFS are truly inclusive.

Non-Banking Staff

And finally there are unseen forms of help. Some service providers have tapped into their existing resources to improve the user experience. This is an example from Indonesia. This security guard has been trained to greet the clients and provide them with the starting information on digital banking to reduce their wait time, and to put them at ease as soon as they enter. Confidence elicits confidence.

Social Circles

Many people also turn to their social circle for validation and support as they navigate digital finance. It is very common to bring someone along when you make a trip to the bank or the agent’s shop.

Young people are probably the top champions of DF in all four countries. We heard several stories like Josephine’s where they encouraged the elder members of their family to go online.  

Josephine is a 65-year-old farmer in Wakiso, Uganda. She started using mobile money only because her daughter bought her a phone and gradually allayed her fears about fraud and other types of risks.

But being too close to the person you are trying to help has its challenges too.

Roshni is the leader of a self-help group in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. She is cautious about how she supports people through DF because she knows their constraints. She can’t prod the other women to buy phones if they can’t afford it and it is best to keep their families in loop for all tech and money-related matters to avoid friction. Here, she explains more of her predicament -

Therefore, it takes a village to ensure that no one is left behind in DF, from the last-mile agents and e-tutorials to the youngsters in the neighbourhood. We need a mix of support mechanisms to uplift the user experience from functional to desirable. Now: What is that mix? How do we ensure people get the answers they need to try DF? How do we prioritise inclusion in the support systems we design? Those are some of the questions we leave you with.