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Hi peeps! ThitsaWorks Monthly Newsletter for August is out now. This month, we shared our activities and product and project updates. We have also included global fintech news and articles. Check out our newsletter here and don't forget to click the subscribe button: https://bit.ly/3qjnwy8

We are delighted to announce that ThitsaWorks, in collaboration with its Consortium Partner - Paymaster Jamaica, has won the “Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion” challenge. The primary goal of this grant funding is to develop digital payment solutions for underserved users of the Credit Unions, removing barriers to citizen’s access to financial services across the region. Our proposed approach involves utilizing a Thitsa Payment Portal to connect 3-4 Credit Unions (CUs) with digital payment tools available in Trinidad. The Thitsa Payment Portal is a web-based payment data transfer portal powered by Mojaloop technology, enabling financial institutions to connect real-time payment networks and perform digital transaction without the need for a core banking system. Thank you, European Union, Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and the Trinidad and Tobago IFC (TTIFC) for their support and collaboration. We are committed to leveraging this opportunity to drive positive change in the financial inclusion landscape of the Caribbean. Learn more about Thitsa Payment Portal here: https://www.thitsaworks.com/paymentportal ----- The “Caribbean Fintech Sprint for Financial Inclusion” Bootcamp was successfully organized from19-21 July 2023 by the European Union, Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), in partnership with the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Centre (TTIFC) with support from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The bootcamp focused on three key areas of impact across the region where digital payments can play a significant role: the development of e-commerce solutions for smallholder farmers; digital payment solutions for credit unions; and the optimization of remote onboarding for D-Cash. Learn more about Caribbean Fintech Sprint for Financial Inclusion Bootcamp here: https://bit.ly/3q52gfs

Making Remittances Cheaper and Faster for the Singapore-to-Philippines Corridor 21 July 2023 Introduction: Cross-border remittance has long been plagued by high costs, slow processing times, and limited accessibility, hindering the economic well-being of overseas migrant workers and their families. Recognizing the urgency to address this global challenge, a collaborative effort between ThitsaWorks, INFITX (previously ModusBox), and Visa resulted in the successful awarding of a Proof of Concept (POC) grant by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) in 29-June-2022. The objective was to develop a groundbreaking solution leveraging innovative technologies and payment networks to deliver cheaper, faster, and transparent cross-border remittance services, with a particular focus on low-income rural areas. The Project's Vision: By harnessing the potential of the open-source Mojaloop payment technology platform and connecting affordable sub-national instant payment systems (IPSs) to national and international payment networks, the project aimed to demonstrate how affordable and efficient remittance services can be extended to underserved regions. This initiative, supported by the Visa Direct network as the international payment network, targeted the Singapore-Philippines corridor, a significant migration route with a sizable population of migrant workers. Key Design Principles: To ensure the success of the project and promote financial inclusion, four key design principles were established: a user-centric approach, expedited time-to-market, scalability, and replicability. By prioritizing end-users, minimizing implementation costs, utilizing existing solutions, and focusing on speed, the project aimed to deliver a more effective and cost-efficient remittance flow. Technical Objectives: Eight technical objectives were identified to evaluate the project's readiness and measure progress. These objectives encompassed inter-system payment, existing interface utilization, cost transparency, and low-cost operations for smaller financial institutions. Each objective guided the exploration and testing of suitable solutions within bilateral sandbox environments, with results compared against the predefined technical targets. Outcomes and Future Implications: The project's white paper presents the detailed work conducted during the Proof of Concept, showcasing the proposed approaches and their successful outcomes. The project team's diligent efforts not only met the desired technical objectives but also unveiled valuable insights, lessons learned, and potential next steps for future considerations. Moreover, this initiative intends to serve as a blueprint for other developing countries, offering a technical and implementation framework that can be adapted to various remittance corridors worldwide. For further information, please contact at info@thitsaworks.com. READ THE FULL WHITEPAPER END-TO-END TRANSACTION VIDEO

We are honored to announce that ThitsaWorks has won The Global Economics Technology Awards 2023 in the category of Most Innovative Fintech Solutions Provider for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). This award recognizes ThitsaWorks’ outstanding contributions to the microfinance sector in Myanmar by providing technology solutions that revolutionize MFIs by streamlining operations and expanding financial services to underserved communities. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to The Global Economic Awards for this recognition, and we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to advancing financial inclusion in Myanmar. See the announcement here: https://www.theglobaleconomics.com/awards/technology/

Hi peeps! ThitsaWorks Monthly Newsletter for July is out now. This month, we shared our activities and product and project updates. We have also included global fintech news and articles. Check out our newsletter here and don't forget to click the subscribe button: https://bit.ly/3N9WFNI

We are thrilled to announce an exciting partnership between ThitsaWorks and VisionFund Myanmar aimed at enhancing the digital financial literacy of end users. The primary focus of this collaboration is to provide educational content designed to improve the knowledge and understanding of end users regarding various financial products, payment tools, and personal financial management concepts. ThitsaWorks, as the content provider, will deliver the high-quality educational materials that is accessible, engaging, and relevant to the needs of the grass-roots level people. These materials will be featured in the application developed by the VisionFund, ensuring effective dissemination to the targeted community. Through this partnership, our goal is to bridge the digital literacy gap and empower end users to make well-informed financial decisions. By equipping individuals with the necessary knowledge and understanding, we aim to promote financial inclusion, encourage responsible financial behavior, and enable individuals to maximize the benefits of available financial tools and services.

26 June 2023 The microfinance sector in Myanmar has encountered unparalleled difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic instability. Movement restrictions and limited financial access have hindered the ability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to effectively serve their vulnerable clients. To overcome these obstacles, MFIs need support in adopting innovative financial technologies, promoting digital financial literacy, and implementing comprehensive capacity-building initiatives. These measures are essential to enhance the resilience and operational efficiency of MFIs, enabling them to navigate through the current crisis successfully. Recognizing the increasing importance of skills enhancement and capacity development in the evolving financial landscape, MMFA and ThitsaWorks are committed to advancing the microfinance industry by utilizing advanced technology. This partnership will center around the development and implementation of online training courses and programs that will be available on the Money Management Academy Platform. ThitsaWorks, with the support of the German Sparkassenstiftung for International Cooperation (DSIK), developed the Money Management Academy (MMA) online learning platform in 2022. Aligned with their shared mission of empowering financial inclusion, MMA provides comprehensive training to professionals, entrepreneurs, and individuals interested in the financial sector, regardless of their prior expertise. The platform offers a wide range of courses, including professional certificate programs and general knowledge courses in microfinance, banking, investment, and insurance. As an education hub, MMA equips both the supply and demand side of the sector with valuable skills and knowledge, effectively bridging the knowledge gap in the financial industry. U Phyo Zeyar Htun, CEO of MMFA, expressed, “We are pleased to embark on this fruitful project together with ThitsaWorks, with the aim of benefiting the microfinance industry by upskilling the capacity of MFI employees and enhancing the behaviors of borrowers. As part of our digital transformation, MMFA will further develop and provide financial-related courses for the sector through the Money Management Academy Online Learning platform.” U Nyi Nyein Aye, CEO of ThitsaWorks, stated, "Our partnership with MMFA allows us to provide accessible financial knowledge and expertise through our MMA online learning platform. With this digital format, individuals can access the platform anytime and anywhere, ensuring widespread accessibility. We strongly believe that empowering professionals in the microfinance sector will play a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion throughout Myanmar." Antje Kinder, Senior Financial Expert at DSIK, explained “A newsletter from the MMFA was the impetus for DSIK and ThitsaWorks to collaborate on the MMA. For this reason, we are very excited about the Memorandum of Understanding between MMFA and ThitsaWorks on the Money Management Academy. The MMA provides great leverage for financial education for financial professionals, as well as for anyone interested in improving their money management knowledge and skills.” By signing this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), MMFA and ThitsaWorks reconfirm their joint dedication to fostering positive transformation and facilitating sustainable development in Myanmar's microfinance sector. ***** About MMFA: The Myanmar Microfinance Association (MMFA) is the national association gathering microfinance practitioners and other relevant stakeholders working to improve access to appropriate and affordable financial services for the poor and unbanked people in Myanmar. MMFA aims to promote transparency, sustainability, and quality of microfinance services by offering training opportunities and other relevant services to its members. MMFA contributes to enhancing sector coordination by providing a platform to share information and best practices and acts as the representative of microfinance practitioners before donors and investors as well as regulators and supervisors contributing to a conducive legal and regulatory environment. For more information, visit https://www.myanmarmfa.com/en. About ThitsaWorks: ThitsaWorks is a FinTech company specializing in digital payment and data analytics solutions. Their cutting-edge offerings enable financial institutions to efficiently transact, collect, manage, and analyze data necessary for running effective operations and mitigating risks. ThitsaWorks leverages data-driven solutions to support the growth of financial institutions, enhance credit decision-making processes, and promote financial inclusion by providing users with access to financial literacy, information, and suitable financial products. Their comprehensive suite of solutions encompasses core banking software, a microfinance data-sharing platform, a digital financial literacy platform, and an interoperable payment switch platform. For more information about ThitsaWorks, visit https://www.thitsaworks.com. For more information about Money Management Academy, visit Website: https://www.moneymanagement.academy/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearnGrowwithMMA About DSIK: The German Sparkassenstiftung for International Cooperation (DSIK) is the German development policy institution of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. DSIK actively supports financial institutions that sustainably promote economic and social development through needs-based banking, with the aim of giving people in developing and emerging countries access to financial services and thus creating perspectives for a way out of poverty. For more information about DSIK, visit https://www.sparkassenstiftung.de/en/ ***** [မြန်မာဘာသာပြန်ဆိုချက်] မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအသင်းနှင့် ThitsaWorks တို့ကြား အွန်လိုင်း လေ့လာသင်ယူမှုပလက်ဖောင်း (Money Management Academy – MMA) ကိုအသုံးပြု၍ အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးကဏ္ဍဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်ရေးအတွက် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်း အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးဆိုင်ရာကျွမ်းကျင်သူများနှင့် သက်ဆိုင်သူများအားလုံး ငွေကြေးကဏ္ဍတွင် ပိုမိုပါဝင်လာနိုင်ရေးအတွက် ရည်ရွယ်ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအသင်း (Myanmar Microfinance Association-MMFA) နှင့် ငွေကြေးဝန်ဆောင်မှုများကို လက်လှမ်းမမီသည့် အသိုက်အဝန်းများအတွက် သင့်လျော်ကောင်းမွန်သည့် ငွေကြေးဝန်ဆောင်မှု နည်းပညာများကို ထောက်ပံ့ပေးလျက်ရှိသည့် ThitsaWorks ကုမ္ပဏီတို့အကြား နားလည်မှုစာချွန်လွှာရေးထိုးကာ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှု ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ဤပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးလုပ်ငန်းများ (Microfinance Institutions-MFIs) ကို ပိုမိုအားကောင်းစွာ လည်ပတ်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် သင်တန်းများ၊ စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်မြှင့်အစီအစဉ်များနှင့် ကဏ္ဍအတွင်း ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်နည်းဖြင့် သင်ယူမှုအလေ့အကျင့်ကောင်းများ ပျိုးထောင်ပေးရန် ရည်ရွယ်ပါသည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးကဏ္ဍသည် COVID-19 ကပ်ရောဂါနှင့် နောက်ဆက်တွဲ စီးပွားရေးမတည်ငြိမ်မှုများကြောင့် အခက်အခဲများစွာ ကြုံတွေ့လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ သွားရေးလာရေး အခက်အခဲများနှင့် ဘဏ္ဍာရေးဆိုင်ရာ ကန့်သတ်ချက်များသည် အသေးစားငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအနေဖြင့် ၎င်းတို့၏ ချေးငွေရယူသူများကို ထိရောက်သော ဝန်ဆောင်မှုများပေးရန် အဟန့်အတားဖြစ်စေပါသည်။ အဆိုပါ အခက်အခဲများကို ကျော်လွှားရန်အတွက် MFIs များသည် ခေတ်မီငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာနည်းပညာများကို လက်ခံကျင့်သုံးခြင်း၊ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာ အသိပညာများ မြှင့်တင်ခြင်းနှင့် စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်မြှင့်တင်မှု အစီအစဉ်များလုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းတို့ ပြုလုပ်ရန် လိုအပ်လာပါသည်။ သို့မှသာ MFIs များအနေဖြင့် လက်ရှိကြုံတွေ့နေရသော အခက်အခဲများကို ကျော်လွှားနိုင်ပြီး လုပ်ငန်းလည်ပတ်မှုကို အထောက်အကူပြုနိုင်မည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ ပြောင်းလဲလာသော ဘဏ္ဍာရေးအခင်းအကျင်းတွင် စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်ရေး၏ အရေးပါမှုကို ကောင်းစွာသိရှိနားလည်ကာ MMFA နှင့် ThitsaWorks တို့သည် ခေတ်မီနည်းပညာကို အသုံးပြု၍ အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးကဏ္ဍ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်ရေး အတူတကွ ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်သွားရန် ကတိကဝတ် ပြုခဲ့ပါသည်။ ဤပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှု၏ တစိတ်တပိုင်းအနေဖြင့် ငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာ အသိပညာများဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်ရေးနှင့် သက်ဆိုင်သည့် အွန်လိုင်းသင်ခန်းစာများ ပြုစုပြီး ယင်းတို့အား အွန်လိုင်း လေ့လာသင်ယူမှု ပလက်ဖောင်း Money Management Academy (MMA) Platform မှတဆင့် ပို့ချသွားနိုင်ရေး အဓိက‌ ဆောင်ရွက်သွားပါမည်။ ThitsaWorks သည် ဂျာမန်နိုင်ငံတကာပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ German Sparkassenstiftund (DSIK) ၏ ပံ့ပိုးမှုဖြင့် Money Management Academy (MMA) အွန်လိုင်းသင်ကြားရေး ပလက်ဖောင်း ကို ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်တွင် အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ MMA ပလက်ဖောင်းတွင် ငွေကြေးကဏ္ဍတွင် အလုပ်လုပ်ကိုင်လျက်ရှိသူများနှင့် စွန့်ဦးတီထွင်သူများအပြင် ငွေရေးကြေးရေးနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ စိတ်ဝင်စားသူတိုင်းအတွက် ပရော်ဖက်ရှင်နယ် အသိအမှတ်ပြု လက်မှတ်သင်တန်းများနှင့် အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေး၊ ဘဏ်လုပ်ငန်း၊ ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုနှင့် အာမခံဆိုင်ရာ အထွေထွေဗဟုသုတများ အစရှိသည့် သင်တန်းများကို လေ့လာသင်ယူနိုင်ပါသည်။ MMA သည် ငွေကြေးကဏ္ဍတွင် ပါဝင်သူများအားလုံးအတွက် အသိပညာများနှင့် ကျွမ်းကျင်မှုများ ဖြည့်ဆည်းပေးကာ နည်းပညာဗဟုသုတကွာဟချက်များ လျော့နည်းရေးအတွက် ပေါင်းကူးသဖွယ် ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးပါသည်။ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ MMFA ၏ CEO ဖြစ်သူ ဦးဖြိုးဇေယျာထွန်းက “MFI ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်နှင့် ငွေချေးသူများ၏ ဗဟုသုတများကို မြှင့်တင်ခြင်းဖြင့် အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးလုပ်ငန်းများကို အကျိုးဖြစ်ထွန်းစေရန် ThitsaWorks နှင့် ပူးပေါင်း၍ ယခု ပရောဂျက်ကို စတင်နိုင်ခဲ့သည့်အတွက် ဝမ်းမြောက်မိပါသည်။ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်အသွင်ကူးပြောင်းခြင်း ကြိုးပမ်းမှု၏ တစိတ်တပိုင်းအနေဖြင့် MMFA သည် Money Management Academy Online Learning Platform မှတဆင့် ဘဏ္ဍာရေးဆိုင်ရာသင်တန်းများကို ဆက်လက်ပြုစုပို့ချသွားပါမည်။” ThitsaWorks ၏ CEO ဖြစ်သူ ဦးညီငြိမ်းအေးက “MMFA နှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းသည် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏ MMA အွန်လိုင်းသင်ယူမှုပလက်ဖောင်းမှတဆင့် အားလုံးကို လက်လှမ်းမီနိုင်သော ငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာအသိပညာဗဟုသုတများ ပိုမိုထိရောက်စွာ ဖြန့်ဝေပေးနိုင်စေသည့်အတွက် ဝမ်းမြောက်မိပါသည်။ MMA တွင် လေ့လာသူများအနေဖြင့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ပုံစံဖြင့် ဖန်တီးထားသော သင်ခန်းစာများကို အချိန်မရွေး နေရာမရွေး ဝင်ရောက်ကြည့်ရှုနိုင်မည်ဖြစ်၍ ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့် အသုံးပြုခွင့် ရရှိစေမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ယခုလို အသေးစားငွေရေးကြေးရေးကဏ္ဍမှ တာဝန်ရှိသူများကို စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်မြှင့်တင်ပေးခြင်းသည် အားလုံးပါဝင်သောငွေရေးစနစ်တခု ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာရေးအတွက် များစွာအထောက်အကူဖြစ်စေမည်ဟု အခိုင်အမာယုံကြည်ပါသည်။” DSIK ၏ Senior Financial Expert ဖြစ်သူ Antje Kinder က “MMFA မှ ထုတ်ဝေခဲ့သည့် သတင်းလွှာတစ်စောင်သည် DSIK နှင့် ThitsaWorks တို့ ပူးပေါင်း၍ MMA Online Learning Platform ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာရေးကြိုးပမ်းရန် တွန်းအားတစ်ခုဖြစ်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ယခုလို MMFA နှင့် ThitsaWorks ၏ MMA တို့အကြား ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေး နားလည်မှုစာချွန်လွှာရေးထိုးနိုင်ခဲ့သည့် အတွက် အလွန်ဝမ်းမြောက်မိပါသည်။ MMA သည် ငွေရေးကြေးရေးကဏ္ဍတွင် လုပ်ကိုင်နေသူများ အတွက် ငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာအသိပညာဗဟုသုတများ ပေးခြင်းအပြင် ငွေကြေးစီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုဆိုင်ရာ အသိပညာများတိုးတက်ရေး စိတ်ဝင်စားသူတိုင်းအတွက် များစွာအကျိုးရှိစေမည့် အွန်လိုင်းလေ့လာ သင်ယူမှုပလက်ဖောင်းတစ်ခု ဖြစ်ပါသည်။” ယခုလို နားလည်မှုစာချွန်လွှာရေးထိုးပြီး ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းဖြင့် MMFA နှင့် ThitsaWorks တို့သည် မြန်မာ့အသေးစာငွေရေးကြေးရေးကဏ္ဍတွင် အပြုသဘောဆောင်သည့် ပြောင်းလဲမှုများနှင့် ရေရှည်တည်တံ့သော ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်မှုကို အထောက်အကူပေးရန် စွမ်းစွမ်းတမံ ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ *****

23 June 2023 Myanmar, like many other developing countries, faces significant challenges in achieving financial inclusion, with its rural communities bearing the brunt of financial exclusion. Although agriculture supports many livelihoods and contributes a significant proportion of Myanmar’s GDP, the sector’s key workforce – smallholder farmers residing primarily in rural areas – still lack equitable access to financial services, hindering their productivity and upward economic mobility. Given the current resource constraints and new challenges, traditional financial institutions, including microfinance institutions, and cooperatives, which have historically served as sources of finance, are currently handicapped in their ability to provide these services, creating a shortage of credit for rural communities. As a result, these communities often rely on informal lending networks and face difficulties in accessing credit, savings, and insurance facilities, limiting their economic opportunities and difficulties to overcome poverty. Moreover, they heavily rely on cash payments for their businesses despite efforts being made to close the financial access gap. Agriculture is the main livelihood for rural communities, which hosts large numbers of small cash transactions. This poses challenges to farmers as it is risky, costly, time-consuming, and has poor record-keeping, making it difficult for them to manage their finances effectively and limiting their ability to expand and improve yields. Financial Inclusion Initiatives and the Role of Fintech Recognizing the importance of financial inclusion, significant steps have been taken at the institutional and national levels to address the challenges faced by rural communities. While traditional financial institutions (such as banks and MFIs) are finding it increasingly difficult and costly to serve rural clients, fintech companies emerge as the new catalysts to help them in bridging the financial inclusion gap. By leveraging digital financial products and systems, fintech empowers individuals in rural areas, granting them convenient and affordable access to financial services. Through mobile applications, customized financial products and collaboration with responsible lenders, innovative financial technology solutions enable smallholder farmers to access appropriate financial tools, including saving, loans, and payment options, potentially leading to profound transformations in the lives of millions of people. Expanding financial services to rural areas must be a multi-prong initiative. Availability of FinTech solutions alone, while absolutely necessary, is not sufficient. These solutions need to be customized for targeted demographic and, more importantly, combined with comprehensive digital financial literacy campaigns to ensure meaningful adoption. Digital Financial Literacy Journey of ThitsaWorks Since December 2021, ThitsaWorks has been at the forefront of providing DFL training to loan officers from MFIs and entrepreneurs from micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). By leveraging technology to effectively reach target audiences, this program aims to enhance the knowledge of digital finance and safely adopt digital financial services among MFIs, and their clients – primarily rural communities and women, and key stakeholders in Myanmar’s financial landscape. To date, ThitsaWorks has successfully delivered DFL ToT training to approximately 4,182 staff members (57% of whom are women) from partner organizations. These well-trained individuals, comprising MFI staff and MSME entrepreneurs, are actively sharing their knowledge with clients, reaching over 119,455 end users (67% of whom are women) across Myanmar including women MFI clients, small holder farmers and rural entrepreneurs. ThitsaWorks’ Collaborations on Digital Financial Literacy Program as Part of the DEAM Project Through collaboration with LIFT (Livelihoods and Food Security Fund), UNCDF and ThitsaWorks, the Digital Economy and Agricultural Market (DEAM) Support project has developed the DFL gap analysis – screening the existing tools, channels, and stakeholders, as well as consulting with concerned partners. Accordingly, ThitsaWorks has customized the DFL curriculum and tools, and provided digital financial literacy training to the loan officers of the microfinance institutions (MFIs), farmers and rural women in collaboration with the organizations involved in this project. The primary objective of this initiative is to enhance the accessibility of digital financial services while increasing clients’ understanding of digital finance. As of May 2023, ThitsaWorks has successfully trained a total of 1,185 loan officers. These loan officers have, in turn, effectively passed on their acquired digital financial knowledge, gained through the Training of Trainers (TOT) program, to their clients through in-person interactions. Consequently, this model has enabled us to provide digital financial literacy to a total of 53,457 end users (67% of whom are women). To disseminate digital financial knowledge and raise awareness about safe adoption of digital financial services and products, ThitsaWorks has also developed informative pamphlets, including information about and access to the up-to-date digital financial services and products available in the market. As of May 2023, a total of 20,800 pamphlets have been successfully delivered to end users through partner organizations. In addition to these efforts, ThitsaWorks launched a DFL awareness campaign on Facebook page of Re21, ThitsaWorks’ financial mobile app, from February 2023 to March 2023. The campaign featured an engaging video and a survey. This video has garnered over 57,900 reach, while the DFL survey accompanying the video received participation from over 200 individuals. Re21 is a mobile budget planner which functions as a financial coach to help users develop better financial habits and resilience while educating them on how to stick to their budget and reach their financial goals. Re21’s DFL module features FIAM Curriculum Part 1 and 2, and have already reached over 4.5 K views. Re21’s Facebook page, boasting around 970 K followers, serves as a platform for sharing digital financial knowledge and money management tips with the public. Empowering Lives: the Transformative Impact of Digital Financial Literacy Through partnerships, training initiatives and accessible curricula, ThitsaWorks has been disseminating DFL knowledge and empowering communities. The followings indicate how our DFL program contributes to the positive impact on the socio-economic status of individual lives: Recognizing the value of DFL in promoting digital safety and financial inclusion, an official from one of the key partner MFIs said, “With the DFL knowledge along with the TOT training, I believe our loan officers can also help to promote valuable knowledge in our society by improving digital safety and financial inclusion. Last but not least, we are delighted to partner with ThitsaWorks in disseminating DFL knowledge to our loan officers and clients.” ​ One individual, Daw San Nwe from Yangon, Thongwa Township, experienced a remarkable transformation through DFL training. She expressed, “Initially, I struggled to even use mobile phones. However, after receiving DFL training from ThitsaWorks, I gained knowledge on various aspects, such as opening mobile wallet accounts, digital financial services, bank transfers, account security, loan interest calculation, money-saving techniques, and systematic financial management. I will share this newfound knowledge with others to help them take charge of their financial well-being.” Shwe Minn Tha Foundation, which educates people with disabilities, has found DFL to be highly suitable for their needs. “The curriculum is easy to understand for people with disabilities. As it includes sign language for hearing-impaired persons and an audio system for vision-impaired persons, it is the most suitable curriculum to educate people with disability on how to use digital technology”, expressed U Aung Thu, the Assistant Regional Officer at the Shwe Minn Tha Foundation, highlighting the accessibility of ThitsaWorks’ DFL curriculum and its positive impacts on the daily lives of individuals with disabilities. The Interactive Approach/Progressive Elaboration Through the implementation of our digital financial literacy programmes, we have gained valuable insights and lessons that will guide us in future endeavors. Firstly, as soon as we had observed the time constraints faced by loan officers caused by many challenges in the current environment, we immediately learned to accommodate this, by means of shortening the lesson duration allowed while maximizing the impact of the programme within their busy schedules. Secondly, we consistently ensured that additional checks to ensure compliance with stakeholder requirements were made, and the strict standards to protect sensitive information were upheld. Conclusion In order to build a stronger and resilient economic foundation in Myanmar, it is crucial to continue promoting financial inclusion by expanding not only tech solutions but also digital financial literacy and awareness in Myanmar. Partnerships, training initiatives, and accessible curricula will play a vital role in disseminating DFL knowledge and empowering communities. By equipping individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge, Myanmar can overcome the barriers to financial inclusion and foster greater economic growth and prosperity for all its citizens. ***** About LIFT: The Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT) is a multi-donor fund set up in 2009, aiming to strengthen the resilience and sustainable livelihoods of poor households by helping people to reach their full economic potential. This is achieved through increasing incomes, improving the nutrition of women and children, and decreasing vulnerabilities to shocks, stresses and adverse trends. LIFT is a significant actor in Myanmar’s development. To date, of the most vulnerable people, around 12.4 million of Myanmar’s population have benefitted from LIFT’s programmes. LIFT has received funding from altogether 16 international donors since it was established. The current donors are the UK, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia, the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand and Norway. To learn more about LIFT, please visit: www.lift-fund.org. About UNCDF: The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the United Nations' flagship catalytic financing entity for the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). With its unique capital mandate and focus on the LDCs, UNCDF works to invest and catalyze capital to support these countries in achieving ​the sustainable growth and inclusiveness envisioned by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries, 2022–2031. UNCDF builds partnerships with other UN organizations, as well as private and public sector actors, to achieve greater impact in development; specifically by unlocking additional resources and strengthening financing mechanisms and systems contributing to transformation pathways, focusing on such development themes as green economy, digitalization, urbanization, inclusive economies, gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. A hybrid development finance institution and development agency, UNCDF uses a combination of capital instruments (deployment, financial & business advisory and catalyzation) and development instruments (technical assistance, capacity development, advocacy, thought leadership, and market analysis and scoping) which are applied across five priority areas (inclusive digital economies, local transformative finance, women’s economic empowerment, climate, energy & biodiversity finance, and sustainable food systems finance). To learn more about UNCDF, please visit: https://www.uncdf.org/ About ThitsaWorks: ThitsaWorks is a FinTech company that provides digital payment and data analytics solutions for financial institutions to transact, collect, manage and analyze data needed to run effective operations and manage risks. ThitsaWorks’ data-driven solutions help financial institutions grow and make better credit decisions, and improve financial inclusion by providing users with access to financial literacy, financial information and appropriate financial products. ThitsaWorks’ solutions include core banking software, microfinance data sharing platform, digital financial literacy platform, and interoperable payment switch platform. To learn more about ThitsaWorks, please visit: https://www.thitsaworks.com/

Hi peeps! ThitsaWorks Monthly Newsletter for June is out now. This month, we shared our activities and product and project updates. We have also included global fintech news and articles. Check out our newsletter here and don't forget to click the subscribe button: https://bit.ly/3N9WFNI

ThitsaWorks is thrilled to announce that #Re21, our mobile budget planner, has received a Merit Award in the “Public Sector and Social Innovation” category at the Asia Smart App Awards 2022/23. This achievement highlights our commitment to providing cutting-edge technology solutions that cater to our customer’s unique needs as well as our contributions to the betterment of society. Our award-winning app, Re21, acts as a personal financial coach that assists users develop better financial habits and resilience, while educating them on adhering to their budget and achieve their financial goals. A special thanks to our amazing team for all of the hard work and dedication to contributing to the community. Thank you, WTIA - Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association for this incredible recognition, and congratulations to all the other winners! Learn more about Re21 here: https://www.re21.io/

We are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between VisionFund Myanmar and ThitsaWorks, as part of a collaboration aimed at facilitating VisionFund Myanmar's digital transformation efforts towards the development of a credit scoring model. ThitsaWorks will assist the VisionFund Myanmar team in gathering the necessary data to construct a model that will produce credit scores for loan applicants. This will enable VisionFund Myanmar to evaluate credit risk levels, set appropriate credit limits, and make informed decisions about extending loans to customers. Credit scoring is a crucial component of microfinance institutions, as it enables them to provide more loans to individuals who may not have access to traditional banking services, expand their customer base, and maintain financial stability. We are delighted to contribute to VisionFund Myanmar's objective of promoting financial inclusion in Myanmar. Our joint mission is to provide more opportunities for individuals and businesses to access the credit they need to thrive and prosper.

Hi peeps! ThitsaWorks Monthly Newsletter for May is out now. This month, we shared our activities and product and project updates. We have also included global fintech news and articles. Check out our newsletter here and don't forget to click the subscribe button: https://bit.ly/3N9WFNI