Choose two elective courses (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) running from Monday to Thursday for each week. On Friday, you’ll dive into the other topic during an intensive 2.5-hour seminar, ensuring a rich and varied experience during your stay.
Bilingual participants have the option to enroll in courses taught in their second language.
Courses
Weeks
Faculty
Morning
Many countries are developing digital public infrastructure. Digital financial services delivered through these systems can meet diverse customer needs. Focused, customer-centric solutions are necessary to include vulnerable groups. This course covers customer-focused methods, explains the DPI framework, and provides practical examples to help participants design digital solutions to specific customer challenges.
Morning
A practical, hands-on course focused on building digital financial services that are trusted, relevant, and intentionally designed to scale. It examines why many digital initiatives stall after launch and provides a clear, experience-based path from market research and readiness assessment to rapid prototyping, thoughtful pilot design, and effective rollout. The result is a learning experience grounded in human insight, for organizations operating in complex contexts.
Afternoon
Data-driven, human-centered design allows you to remain relevant by addressing the diverse needs of a broader customer base. This is critical because low-income clients often underutilize formal financial services. In this session, you will learn how data scopes product and delivery challenges, followed by the application of human-centered research tools. This combined approach enables you to identify and implement practical solutions that truly resonate with your customers' lives.
Afternoon
Reaching vulnerable populations sustainably is a core challenge in financial inclusion. This course addresses rising costs and digital disruption with practical, field-tested methods. Equip yourself to expand services effectively among rural communities, women, youth, migrants, and low-income businesses. Learn to design adaptable digital products and hybrid delivery channels that reduce barriers, manage risk, and genuinely center client needs.
Morning
Discover how digital ecosystems and infrastructure are reshaping the financial services landscape, increasing competition but also creating new opportunities for microfinance providers. This course will explore new business models and show you how to leverage your customer base and data assets to re-imagine customer journeys and products.
Morning
This course equips participants with practical tools to design and scale digital financial services for smallholder farmers. Through a hands-on, evidence-based approach, it addresses the financing and information gaps affecting rural communities. Participants explore commercially viable models to deliver accessible, affordable digital services, supporting productivity, resilience, and sustainable growth in a context of rising food demand and rapid change.
Afternoon
This course helps strengthen client understanding and redesign everyday service practices using both human-centered frameworks and simple AI tools to analyze client behavior, map needs across generations, and enhance communication and trust at every touchpoint. The focus is practical, low-cost, and immediately usable, supporting institutions that aim to remain deeply client-centric. It is a hands-on exploration of how human insight and AI together can elevate service quality, trust, and client experience in microfinance.
Afternoon
Climate change presents both risks and opportunities for farmers and financial institutions. This course provides strategies to navigate operational and credit risks while seizing emerging possibilities. Learn how to strengthen farmer resilience against climate shocks, support adaptation and green transitions, and safeguard your portfolio, using practical examples and data-driven insights for a sustainable future.
Choose two elective courses (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) running from Monday to Thursday for each week. On Friday, you’ll dive into the other topic during an intensive 2.5-hour seminar, ensuring a rich and varied experience during your stay.
© 2026 Boulder Institute of Microfinance. All rights reserved.
Robert Christen is President and founding member of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Mr. Christen has held several positions including Deputy Director General at Banco Compartamos in Mexico, Professor of Practice in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, Director of Financial Services for the Poor at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Senior Advisor for CGAP at the World Bank, and Director of Technical Assistance for Accion International. He has had a prolific 40-year career advancing the work of leading microfinance institutions in more than 50 countries.
Momina Aijazuddin is Regional Industry Director at IFC, leading the Financial Institutions Group for the Middle East, Central Asia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. She oversees a team of 70 professionals and a portfolio of $4 billion, with annual commitments exceeding $2.7 billion.
Previously, she was IFC’s global lead for MSME finance, managing cumulative investments over $6 billion and $63.7 million in advisory projects across 70 countries. Her work focused on digital finance, fintech, and financial inclusion, including co-drafting the G20 Digital Financial Inclusion Principles.
With nearly 30 years of experience across financial services, microfinance, and manufacturing in over 70 countries, Momina specializes in institution building, regulatory transformation, and policy engagement. She holds a Master’s in Economics with Distinction from the London School of Economics.
Martin Holtmann is the Private Sector Manager at the World Bank Group’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). Previous roles in the World Bank Group include: IFC Country Manager for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, IFC Global Financial Institutions Group Manager for MSME Finance and Digital Finance, IFC Chief Microfinance Specialist, and Lead Financial Specialist at CGAP. Martin started banking with Deutsche Bank in Buenos Aires. Before joining the WBG, he spent twelve years as Managing Director and Project Manager with IPC, an access to finance and bank management consulting firm, and the founding entity of ProCredit Bank.
Gerhard Coetzee is an independent advisor specializing in financial inclusion through demand-side policies, consumer protection, and human-centered design. He currently advises FinMark Trust and serves on the BFAP Board.
During his tenure at CGAP, Dr. Coetzee led both the Policy and Customer Value teams, driving global initiatives in customer-centricity, gender inclusion, and digital financial services across Africa and Europe. Previously, as Head of Inclusive Banking at Absa Bank, he managed a portfolio serving five million low-income clients and founded the Centre for Inclusive Banking in Africa at the University of Pretoria.
A PhD in Agricultural Economics, he served as Secretary for Nelson Mandela’s Presidential Commission on Rural Finance. Dr. Coetzee is a renowned expert in bridging the gap between high-level policy and the practical implementation of inclusive financial systems that empower underserved populations.
The accelerated shift toward digitalization is being driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, data analytics, cryptocurrencies, and central bank digital currencies. Despite this progress, many vulnerable populations remain underserved, as financial service providers tend to prioritize urban areas and formally employed individuals. Women, in particular, are frequently overlooked and not considered as a key demographic.
This course introduces customer-centric methodologies, beginning with an analysis of distinct customer segments and their specific financial requirements. It proceeds with an overview of the design process and strategies for overcoming implementation challenges. Students will also be introduced to the concept of digital public infrastructure, which underpins the digitization of financial services. Beyond theoretical knowledge, the course requires students to develop digital finance solutions tailored to real-world customer challenges. These challenges include advancing financial inclusion for women and supporting climate adaptation while managing associated risks. Through this applied approach, students will gain practical skills that they can further leverage within their respective organisations.
Anup Singh is a Partner at EY, leading the Government and Infrastructure practice across the East Africa cluster. With over 18 years of experience, he brings deep expertise in strategic planning, policy reform, product innovation, process reengineering, and risk management. He has advised more than 200 institutions, including governments, financial service providers, FinTechs, and multilateral organizations, on expanding access to inclusive financial services. His work spans Africa and Asia, where he is recognized for applying user-centered design and ecosystem thinking to drive innovation in the financial sector.
Anup specializes in leading complex, multi-stakeholder projects that promote digital transformation and inclusive growth. He is also a seasoned trainer and facilitator, serving as a faculty member at the Boulder Institute of Microfinance since 2017, where he shares practical, impact-focused approaches to digital product development and service delivery.
Across Africa and Asia, financial institutions are digitizing quickly, but too many offerings for low- and middle-income segments still struggle with adoption, affordability, trust, and operational fit.
This course focuses on the practical craft of building next-gen digital financial services that are inclusive and commercially sound. It is most relevant for banks, MFIs, SACCOs, FinTechs, and mobile money providers, especially leaders and managers in digital, product, retail, SME/agri, operations, and innovation.
Participants work through a structured lifecycle: institutional introspection and capability mapping, customer and market research, value proposition and pricing, journey design, rapid prototyping, pilot architecture, and scale planning.
The course blends agile delivery, design sprints, lean experimentation, user-centered design, and DevOps principles in ways that fit institutional constraints, with field-grounded examples from East Africa and South Asia spanning digital savings, micro- and nano-credit, agri value-chain financing, G2P-linked wallets, and merchant solutions.
Petronella Chigara-Dhitima is the Managing Director for Mustard Seed Advisory – a development finance advisory firm in financial inclusion. She has more than 33 years of experience in 23 African countries and 8 other developing countries in Asia and Latin America. She has recently been involved in several publications with one of the most recent ones being the “DMAC Toolkit: Unleashing the power of data to transform your business | FSD Africa”. Prior to setting up Mustard Seed, Petronella was ACCION’s Africa Hub Manager and Project Manager, leading the technical assistance team for EB – ACCION and heading the Africa Training Centre based in Ghana. She has been instrumental in spearheading microfinance banks’ greenfield operations in West Africa and setting up microfinance divisions in two different banks in Zimbabwe.
Stephen Peachey is a financial sector information specialist and has over 30 years’ experience of financial sector development at both policy and individual institutional levels. His most recent work has included engineering more usable and affordable but still sustainable product offerings at ten savings banks worldwide (seven in Africa) with a view to at least doubling the number of usable savings accounts in the hands of the poor. Separately, he has worked on detailed product and channel costing models for more than ten retail banks across the developed and developing world and on studies of branchless financial services in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
This course addresses critical engagement gaps by teaching participants how to leverage free-to-use data and qualitative research to reach underserved segments. It focuses on identifying why customers, particularly in large MFIs and mass-access banks, often underutilize formal services. Through iterative delivery models, attendees will learn to align institutional goals with actual client needs, a skill equally vital for donors aiming for deep social impact beyond mere financial access.
Participants will engage in practical exercises including creating customer personas and mapping journeys to pinpoint obstacles to service take-up. The curriculum emphasizes collaborative ideation and rapid prototyping to ensure long-term sustainability. These frameworks are applied through high-impact case studies, such as implementing the WE-FI Code for women entrepreneurs and using UN FAO and UNEP-FI tools to resolve climate adaptation challenges for smallholder farmers, directly connecting theory to today’s most pressing sector realities.
Oscar Guzmán serves as a Projects Director for World Council. An economic and financial inclusion expert with over 30 years of experience in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, Oscar has assisted more than one million women, youth, smallholder farmers, entrepreneurs, indigenous, migrants and vulnerable populations in accessing financial services and economic opportunities.
Oscar has previously served WOCCU as our regional director for Latin America, as well as a project director and program manager on several initiatives in Latin America, Africa and Asia. He has held chairman and board member positions at numerous companies promoting digital financial services. Oscar has also taught at several universities, and at the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. He has authored various publications and has worked as an international consultant in more than 20 countries as well.
Oscar holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Catholic University of Ecuador and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Carlos III of Madrid.
Despite decades of progress, millions of low-income and rural households remain excluded from formal financial services due to high transaction costs, rigid methodologies, and products misaligned with their realities. This course examines how digital financial services and hybrid methodologies can close that gap, without sacrificing portfolio quality or institutional sustainability.
Drawing on more than 30 years of field experience across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the course is especially relevant for MFIs, cooperatives, banks, fintechs, and development programs serving rural, agricultural, and vulnerable segments. Participants will analyze how traditional microfinance models must evolve by integrating digital channels, individual product design, financial education, payments and flexible risk management approaches.
The course combines real-world cases, practitioner reflections, and applied frameworks covering digital savings, payments, credit, microinsurance, correspondent agents, and mobile-based service delivery. Participants will work through practical decision points faced by institutions today: how to reduce transaction costs, diversify risk, improve client experience, and compete or collaborate with fintechs in rapidly changing markets.
Matthew Saal is a Managing Director with ALMA, a lender to emerging markets fintech and climate innovators. Until June, 2025, Matthew was a Principal Industry Specialist in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Matthew’s work at FIG covered digital financial services and financial infrastructure advisory work, partnerships, and investments in innovative financial services providers. During 2018-2019 Matthew was a World Bank Presidential Fellow seconded to the FCI Global Practice, focused on fintech policy and fintech for inclusion. Prior to joining IFC, Matthew was Associate Director in the Local Currency and Capital Markets Development initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Digitization is reshaping every economic activity, from shopping to education and government services. Financial services are transforming, and at the same time, digital financial infrastructure is helping transform other industries. This elective will look at the opportunities and challenges for MFIs in leveraging technology and competing with fintechs and embedded finance, including:
– Understanding digital ecosystems and infrastructure
– Digitizing products and processes
– Rethinking customer journeys and lifetime value
– Leveraging data for inclusive finance
Nathan Were is an agriculture and access-to-finance specialist with over 15 years of experience advancing inclusive finance across Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Uganda. His work bridges strategy and practice, supporting institutions that serve smallholder families with solutions grounded in evidence and local realities. He has led regional advisory initiatives, designed farmer-centered financial products, and managed large-scale programs expanding digital and alternative delivery channels. Nathan brings experience from international development organizations, microfinance institutions, and commercial banking, with a consistent focus on strengthening financial systems that build resilience and opportunity for underserved communities.
This course equips participants with practical skills to design and deploy inclusive digital financial products and services tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers. It combines user-centered design with real-world case studies to translate technology into meaningful, scalable outcomes in rural contexts.
The course addresses limited access to affordable digital finance, common adoption barriers such as trust, literacy, connectivity, and cost, and the challenges of fragmented ecosystems involving technology providers, local practices, and regulation. It is relevant for financial service providers, cooperatives, agribusiness partners, NGOs, and regulators engaged in agricultural finance.
Participants analyze successful and failed initiatives, map end-to-end customer journeys, conduct needs assessments, and engage in hands-on prototyping exercises. Practical tools include customer research templates, value proposition canvases, and a curated set of case studies. The course reflects current sector realities, including mobile money growth, digital identity reforms, interoperability, partnerships, and scalable innovation in resource-constrained environments.
Carlos Silis is a purpose-driven marketing strategist, mentor, and educator with over 20 years of experience helping organizations grow through clarity, creativity, and human insight. Founder of The Moonshot Company, his work sits at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and human centered growth, supporting organizations across education, healthcare, finance, and technology through meaningful transformation. He is deeply committed to strengthening entrepreneurial and social impact ecosystems through his mentorship with Endeavor and Victoria147, and he teaches at ITAM, ISDI, CENTRO, and the Boulder Institute. Carlos continues to explore how technology and artificial intelligence can reinforce empathy, trust, and client-centric practices rather than replace them.
This course equips microfinance leaders with practical tools to deepen client understanding and enhance service quality by blending human insight with accessible AI. Through international case studies, participants learn how trust is built and broken in real-world operations.
The curriculum covers generational client behavior, low-income customer journeys, Jobs to Be Done analysis, omnichannel communication, and service rituals that strengthen loyalty. Participants then learn to apply AI for tasks like segmentation and message crafting, requiring no technical expertise.
Highly interactive and grounded in practice, the course involves participants working in pairs and small groups to analyze real scenarios, redesign communications, and prototype immediate improvements.
Designed for all microfinance roles, from loan officers to CX leaders, this course builds the essential skills to serve clients with empathy while navigating digital transformation, bridging traditional philosophy with the new tools required in today’s evolving landscape.
Max Mattern is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP, where he currently leads the organization’s work exploring the role of financial services in building more inclusive carbon markets. He began his career as an expert in agriculture and rural finance and has spent over 15 years working to improve rural livelihoods through financial services. During his time at CGAP, Max has also led efforts design better digital financial services for smallholder farmers, address social norms preventing rural women’s access to financial services, and expand access to essential services such as energy.
Before joining CGAP, Max worked at the World Bank. In addition to his experience in financial inclusion, his previous roles include consulting and research in rural and agricultural development, nutrition, and food security.
Faced with the acceleration of climate change, financial institutions must adapt their approach to agricultural finance, a highly exposed sector. This course provides the knowledge and tools to achieve this. It presents innovative products, services, and partnerships that help farmers strengthen their resilience, adapt, and adopt green technologies. Proactively managing these climate challenges can also strengthen portfolios and open new markets.
Designed for managers of MFIs and commercial banks operating in rural areas, the course synthesizes the latest knowledge on resilience, adaptation, and the green transition. Participants study emerging models and, through collaborative workshops, design practical solutions that can be directly applied within their institutions.
