Client-driven impact: 2024 60 Decibels Microfinance Index launches
Now in it's third year, Abler Nordic is a proud founding partner of the 60 Decibels Microfinance Index
Since its inception in 2022, the 60 Decibels Microfinance Index has become the world’s largest financial inclusion dataset grounded in customer voice. It exists to measure and benchmark the impact of the microfinance sector – providing high-quality, comparable social performance data for Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
As a founding partner, Abler Nordic is proud to continue to support this essential tool, which highlights the real impact of financial inclusion efforts worldwide.
This year, the Index expanded to gather over 1.4 million data points from 126 financial service providers (FSPs) across 45 countries. By capturing direct feedback from more than 36,000 clients, the Index offers a detailed, client-centered view of how financial services are impacting lives. Collectively, these FSPs serve 32 million clients across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, providing unique insights into financial inclusion on a global scale.
Key findings from the global report for 2024 include:
- 89% of clients report improved quality of life—the highest in three years
- 26% remain vulnerable to unexpected expenses, though additional services like training, savings, or insurance are helping bridge this gap
- Group loans are effectively reaching historically excluded populations such as female and rural borrowers: 85% of group borrowers are women
- Women are more likely to use loans to invest in businesses, enhancing financial resilience
- Mature financial service providers outperform younger and older peers in client impact
- Clients with longer tenure and additional services show stronger climate-related recovery capacity
Abler Nordic’s Approach: Operationalising data for better customer outcomes
At Abler Nordic, we believe deeply in the value of data-driven insights to strengthen social impact. For the 2024 Index, more than 2,000 clients from seven of our portfolio companies across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia shared valuable feedback on how financial services are impacting their lives.
Through the Index, we gain detailed insights across six key client-centered dimensions: Access, Business Impact, Household Impact, Client Protection, Resilience, and Agency, alongside global, regional and country-level benchmarks. These benchmarks are essential for defining what "good" looks like. Having a clear dataset to compare to gives us a baseline, helping us identify both our successes and areas for improvement.
By comparing performance across regions and countries, we gain a deeper understanding of the unique contexts and challenges that clients face in different environments. Highlighting these regional nuances allows us to collectively expand our knowledge of what truly makes a difference for clients, enabling us to tailor our approach to meet their diverse needs.
Collaboration with our investees is key. We work closely with them to act on these insights, refining products and services to better meet clients' needs. This collaboration reinforces our belief that end clients are the best judges of their own progress and that their voices are essential in shaping financial solutions that support resilience and growth.
We also strongly believe that initiatives like the 60 Decibels Microfinance Index are essential for the development of the broader financial inclusion sector. By banding together with like-minded organizations, and build a more comprehensive understanding of client needs. This shared learning enables us all to become wiser and, together, provide better services for clients.
In the coming months, we look forward to sharing insights from our portfolio, providing a closer look at the experiences and outcomes of our clients. We encourage you to explore the full 2024 60 Decibels Microfinance Index report for a deeper understanding of the global impact of financial inclusion.
Full Report Available: 2024 60 Decibels Microfinance Index
For those interested in exploring these insights in greater depth, we invite you to join the 60 Decibels insights session on November 11. Register here to learn more about how client feedback is shaping the future of financial inclusion.
