Training Session 6 - Supply Chain Finance Innovation

30 March 2021

Time:

8 : 00

9 : 30

EST ( GMT

-05:00

)

Convert

-05:00

Online

Training Session 6 - Supply Chain Finance Innovation

Supply Chain Finance (SCF) is an effective solution to extend access to finance to small businesses by developing a technology-driven low-risk product aimed to channel liquidity to the strategically important value chains. Automated supply chain finance programs enable FIs to better assess, measure and manage risks of extending finance to SMEs thorough the transparency of the full value chain, and visibility of the commercial and financial relationships among the parties. In addition, credit and payment risk is decreased by shifting the focus from FI-SME relationship to a tri-party FI-anchor-SME relationship, hence leveraging the trade and payment between larger anchor and SME supplier / distributor. Supply Chain Finance has a strong potential to close the finance gap in developing countries, which per IFC estimates can reach up to ~20% of the total finance gap, i.e. over $1 trillion.

To extend awareness and increase knowledge about SCF in the countries of its operations, the International Finance Corporation, together with the SME Finance Forum, is organizing a training series, covering major areas important for building successful SCF programs for financial institutions, for six weeks on Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. EST.

This is a regional event for Middle East and Africa members and IFC clients. Participants who attend the 6-week program will be issued a “certificate of attendance”. Read about the program here.

Session 6. Application of tech in SCF Lifecycle

The last session of this series will examine use of technologies throughout the SCF journey, e.g. customer acquisition and engagement, credit decisioning and instruments, processing and collection. Discussion will focus on the nuanced needs of serving MSMEs and factors that financial institutions should anticipate when introducing SCF for these market segments.

Learning Goals

Deconstruction of supply chain finance journey and key considerations
Opportunities to apply technology to benefit serving MSMEs
Factors for financial institutions to anticipate when introducing SCF for MSMEs

Trainer

Scott Stefanski has dedicated much of his 22-year career as a business and technology strategist, to the pursuit of solutions at the nexus of financial services and digital disruption. This work began with early efforts to introduce mobile technology to emerging markets before addressing issues around bank access, co-creating an early mobile wallet solution and serving as first employee for Ultralight Banking (later branded Obopay). He later focused on merchant challenges and designed solutions to embrace interpersonal transaction behaviors, founding Maana Mobile for the South African market. Most recently, Scott has expanded his work to address financial needs throughout supply chains, investigating and modeling opportunities to digitize supply chain management and finance practices for the benefit of a broader set of suppliers and merchants. Along the way, Scott has advised multilateral institutions, foundations and private sector clients in fields of innovation practices, product design, rapid prototyping, business and financial modeling, advising on investments, and interpreting technological trends to define future facing strategies to better meet the needs of the financially excluded. His efforts have included rapid prototyping consumer instant credit products in Senegal, user-centered product design of a person-to-person digital marketplace in Ghana, and designing and initiating a supply chain management and finance platform for the Tanzanian market. He has conducted market assessments across several African and Asian markets for digital financial services, and worked with mobile operators and banks in multiple African and Asian markets to modernize their product development practices to enable more rapid innovation.