Submission

GoodCents: AI-driven financial app for all

Leveraging artificial intelligence and big data, GoodCents supports the unbanked/underbanked achieve control over their financial lives.

Jove I. Tapiador

M&E Specialist

jtapiador@epeso.org.ph

Asia

USAID E-PESO

Economic Growth and Trade
Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

With a global unbanked/underbanked population of more than 2 billion, financial services is a key element to lift many of these people out of poverty and provide opportunities for progress. To achieve this, alternative delivery channels such as mobile phones and agent networks rather than expensive branches must be developed to serve this market since traditional ban channels are expensive and usually located in urban centers. GoodCents solves this problem by fusing together the online/offline worlds through a mobile-centric platform used by both financial services providers and target users to overcome geographic distance, infrastructure cost, and time constraints to create a compelling customer journey for financial services.

This idea builds on existing financial inclusion strategies such as mobile-centric approaches, use of agent networks, and microfinance. However, GoodCents innovates by using cloud-enabled solutions to integrate disparate financial players into a seamless, customer-focused platform. It builds on a unique customer journey approach that considers the lifestyle and behavior of users, and therefore create a compelling user experience through excellent user interface design, timely service offerings, and financial education and budgeting tools. It also leverages big data to develop robust know-your-customer (KYC) profiles, and applies artificial intelligence to develop customized financial solutions. This unique fusion creates a fully digital financial services experience at a very low cost per customer, otherwise unattainable by traditional banking services, and creates a long-tail income stream.

By deploying GoodCents in emerging economies moving towards banking interoperability, it boosts the banked population that could not be reached by traditional bank channels. This also opens opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs and low-income households to avail of savings, credit, insurance, and payment services; and increases the use of electronic channels and instruments that improve economy-wide efficiencies and economic growth.

Chemonics can use GoodCents to build its leadership position in the digital financial services (DFS) space. Initially, GoodCents can be piloted in projects that require DFS solutions such as the Philippines E-PESO project. Once tested and improved, it can be incubated, accelerated, and spun-off as a subsidiary or affiliate company that can offer its services not just to partners such as USAID, but even to private entities that can deploy it globally across emerging markets particularly in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

To develop the technology, a dedicated software engineering team would require 7-9 months to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) and 6-8 months to pilot it, for a total of 13-17 months of development work and piloting. With an estimated total direct project cost of $200,000-$250,000, it is less than 0.03% of Chemonics' total revenue. However, Chemonics' returns are in incalculable since it will catapult the company to the forefront of digital financial services practice and be recognized as a technology-driven development firm with a long-tail revenue stream from this idea.

Philippines and Southeast Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; Colombia and Latin America

Potential outcomes:
1. Significant development outcomes for DFS-related projects such as E-PESO;
2. Build on Chemonics' wealth of DFS experience since the 15-year MABS project;
3. Catapult the company to a leadership position in DFS best practices resulting to project wins;
4. Attain synergies with blockchain-enabled, digital identity efforts with BanQu; and,
5. Develop alternative sources of income resulting to increased profitability.

GoodCents is a technology replicable not just in USAID E-PESO, but in other projects such as Colombia's Rural Finance Initiative (RFI) as well as in future digital finance activities.

GoodCents small deck.pdf