Strategies for Reducing Non-Institutional Fraud and Building Trust in a Digital Market Platform

The prevalence of fraud in Nigeria makes it hard for MSMEs to distinguish between real communications from digital service providers, and for example, phishing messages from scammers. This leads to a lack of trust in client communications and an unwillingness to use digital services.

To address this issue, we explore two promising solutions, a Unique Communication Code (UCC) and education on fraud, to ascertain their impacts on susceptibility to non-institutional fraud and trust in, and willingness to use digital financial services.

Conducted in partnership with Amana Market, a digital platform in Nigeria that offers access to market information and financial service to MSMEs, this study involves an RCT with newly onboarded MSMEs. MSMEs will be randomized at onboarding into one of three groups; a control, an arm provided with a UCC and an arm who will receive ongoing education about fraud. To estimate impact, we will use administrative and endline survey data to measure a range of outcomes around susceptibility to fraud, trust in platforms, and engagement with the platform. Findings from this study will help improve consumer protection and support digital security for Africa’s large and growing platform and financial services sectors.

To acccess this dataset, please email Dr Michael King kingm4@tcd.ie 

Innovative Lending Products for Women-Led SMEs in Nigeria

Women entrepreneurs in Nigeria face higher barriers than men do to access finance, especially in providing traditional forms of collateral for loans, since most assets that lenders accept are typically registered to men. This impact evaluation measures the impact of an innovative credit product designed to surmount long standing collateral constraints faced by women entrepreneurs by using cash flow to determine credit worthiness. This study examines how the cash flow loan product affects firm performance and productivity and changes in the owner’s household income, consumption, power relations, decision-making and standard of living. Working with one of the largest retail banks in Nigeria, this project involves 6,000 SMEs.