In 2022, the world continued to face a multitude of challenges, with each of them leading to a widening inequality gap and increasing global poverty. Each of these affected our collective ability to promote inclusive finance as well. The increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events have led to economic losses and displacement, making it harder for people to access financial services.
Amidst these issues, the Swiss Capacity Building Facility (SCBF) has remained committed to promoting inclusive finance to foster economic growth and empowerment around the world. Since 2011, SCBF has been a pioneer in blending and leveraging of public and private financial and human resources to contribute to financial inclusion and to foster innovations for inclusive finance to better respond to challenges faced by low-income clients, especially women, smallholder farmers and MSMEs (micro, small and medium sized enterprises) in developing and emerging countries.
The Annual Report 2022 outlines the interventions and activities undertaken in the past year and contributions made by SCBF over the years in supporting financial inclusion around the world.
Here are some of the key highlights:
- Since 2011, SCBF has touched the lives of 3.4 million end-clients, of whom 64% are women and 53% reside in rural areas.
- In 2022, 577,000 unique end-clients benefitted from the innovative and tailored financial products provided by our partners.
- SCBF funded 19 innovative projects focusing on digital financial inclusion, climate change finance and insurance, health insurance primarily across the African continent in line with the global development priorities.
- For every CHF 1 from the core public donor Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), SCBF has been able to leverage an additional CHF 1.8 from other partners;
Moving forward, SCBF will further fine-tune and launch its 2030 strategy and will seek to explore new strategic alliances, multiply partnerships, diversify funding and identify new fields of innovation.
With the continued support of all our members, donors, and partners, we are confident that we can build on the successes of the past year and make even greater strides in financial inclusion in the years to come!
