<p>As part of Accion Global Advisory Solutions, Archana Kejriwal is the Manager responsible for supporting the design and implementation of advisory projects with Accion partners. Currently, she focuses on financial literacy programs to help financial institutions in India scale their efforts to reach the underserved. Archana brings more than eleven years of experience consulting and implementing projects in the social sector, especially with development finance institutions.</p>


Manager, Customer Engagement

Archana Kejriwal

Ovante, Accion’s edtech platform, helps Indian MSMEs learn business tricks and adapt to a digital world

Article

[caption id="attachment_26666" align="alignright" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-26666" src="https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sarika-ovante-india-user-656x1024.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="468" /> <em>Small business owner Sarika Devi opened an online store for the first time after gaining the knowledge and confidence to use digital tools from Ovante</em>[/caption]

Nestled in a busy street market in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India, you can find Sarika Devi behind the counter of her small shop. Known locally as a <em>kirana</em>, Sarika’s convenience shop sells toffees, biscuits, chocolates, and other sundries. Sarika lives with her husband and their two sons just a few blocks from her store. Although Sarika’s husband also runs a business, his income was insufficient to cover the family’s expenses. So four years ago, Sarika decided to start her own business and opened her shop.

Like other micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) owners, Sarika endured daunting challenges when COVID-19 spread to her community. Just two years after getting her business off the ground, the shutdowns caused by the pandemic left her facing an uncertain future. As the pandemic progressed, she learned about the benefits of e-commerce platforms and saw how other small businesses with an online presence had advantages over those that did not. Online sales channels helped MSMEs sustain and grow their businesses despite the challenging circumstances of COVID-19. While Sarika has a smartphone, she sometimes needs her son’s help to use it. With a limited academic background and few resources, Sarika did not know how to take her small business online.

In December 2021, Sarika learned about <a href="https://ovante.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ovante</a>, a self-training digital platform developed by Accion to help small business owners strengthen their managerial, financial, and digital capacities. The platform, recently launched in India, encourages real behavior change that helps build the necessary skills to increase their earning potential and grow their businesses — all accessible from smartphones in a user-friendly app.

With the help of one of Accion’s trainers, Sarika began using the Ovante platform and enrolled in the training course, “Buying and Selling Online.” After successfully completing her training, and with the help of her family, Sarika opened an online store through WhatsApp to sell her kirana items. <strong>“It helped me understand how I can use WhatsApp and social media to promote my business,”</strong> she said about the knowledge she gained from her Ovante training.

Sarika now takes orders through phone calls and WhatsApp, delivers the orders at the customer’s doorstep, and is learning how to incorporate online payments into her business. Sarika’s story highlights Indian MSME owners’ awareness of the changing business climate and the need to adopt digital tools to sustain businesses such as Sarika’s kirana store.

A key feature that Sarika and other MSMEs highlighted is the hands-on aspect of the platform. Sarika notes, <strong>"Most of the activities ask me to take some action, like partnering with another shop in my neighborhood or sending a WhatsApp message to one of my customers. Then I log the results of their activity in the Ovante app.”</strong> Sarika and other Indian MSME users benefitted from Ovante’s bite-sized lessons — quick enough to complete during a mid-day break — and enjoyed access to MSME experts from Accion who provided specialized business advice.

As of February 2022, over 1,400 MSMEs throughout 20 districts in India are registered on Ovante, of which 21 percent are women-owned businesses, including Sarika’s kirana store. To date, 24 percent of the registered users have completed at least one training topic offered through Ovante’s three key programs: “Make More Money,” “Buying and Selling Online,” and “Get Access to Credit.” Ovante makes a difference in the lives of small business owners, like Sarika, by helping them become stronger business owners, savvier digital users, and more credible financial clients. As Sarika uses her new skills to grow her business, she’s gaining financial independence and dreaming of a brighter future for her sons.

<a href="/advisory-contact">Contact us here</a> to learn more about how Accion leverages digital tools like Ovante to help more entrepreneurs thrive. For more information on partnering with Accion to bring Ovante to more small business owners in India, please reach out to <a href="mailto:akejriwal@accion.org">akejriwal@accion.org</a>.

<em>Bryce Feibel contributed to this article.</em>

This user-friendly app gives Indian entrepreneurs skills to succeed

Financial literacy and capability programs support a growing middle class in India — now these programs are going digital

For families to get ahead, they need access to financial products and services. However, many people in India don't understand how to use these tools well, so they <a href="https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/Conceptualising_financial_literacy/9494978">avoid them and avoid planning for the future</a>. This leaves them vulnerable to predatory lending, overselling, and fraud, and it can lead to crippling debt and poor financial management. Financial education can make all the difference by helping people to build <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/what-is-financial-capability#targetText=Financial%20capability%20is%20the%20combination,access%20to%20appropriate%20financial%20services.">financial capabilities</a>.  Armed with the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy needed to make the best money management decisions available, individuals can finally reach their economic potential.

For roughly two decades, Accion has included education and training services as important components of its financial inclusion work. As part of its client education programs in India, Accion has partnered with <a href="https://www.axisbank.com/">Axis Bank</a> to deliver programs inlcuding Mass Awareness Campaigns and the Money Plan Program. The former focuses on spreading awareness of basic financial concepts and the latter on creating awareness about the importance of keeping track of debt, savings, and expenses. Women are the main beneficiaries of these programs, which focuses on developing their decision-making skills to effectively drive women’s empowerment.
<h3><strong>Mass Awareness Campaigns </strong></h3>
Mass Awareness Campaigns focus on spreading financial literacy to low-income households across India, primarily in rural areas. The program uses tools like street plays, drama, and magic shows to teach all aspects of people’s financial lives, including earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and investing. It spreads awareness of good spending habits, monthly budgeting, identifying appropriate institutions, and avoiding risks. For many clients, this program is crucial for building initial awareness, inspiring financial conversations among family and neighbors, and driving them to seek out additional training. More than 15,000 individuals have participated in these campaigns, and many have gone on to take part in the Money Plan Program.
<h3><strong>From awareness to the Money Plan Program</strong></h3>
The Money Plan Program is a three-day in-depth workshop which focuses on building a deeper understanding of critical financial concepts. It focuses on improving the financial capacity of low-income women by giving them the tools to maintain their personal and household accounts efficiently. Through a set of modules, participants learn about financial planning, cash flow and budgeting, savings, debt, investment, insurance, and banking.

The initial results of the impact of program are promising. A survey of 9,000 women showed that it promoted significant behavior changes, especially in terms of financial discipline and budget planning. After the workshop, respondents reported a 27 percent increase in savings and an 18 percent increase in the use of bank accounts for saving. Interestingly, it wasn’t only attendees who benefitted. Respondents shared that after the program, their spouses also engaged in the financial planning exercises and in joint decision-making.
<h3><strong>The road ahead for financial education programs</strong></h3>
While the initial impact has been positive and women have been excited to use interactive tools for building their financial capability, scaling the programs has been challenging. They require large human resource investments, both in terms of time and money. Additionally, the programs do not permit real-time collection of data, which makes supervision and monitoring time-consuming and costly.

India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market and <a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/india">is expected to add over 330 million mobile subscribers by 2020</a>. Many of the new mobile and internet users have experience learning on digital platforms. This gives us the opportunity to build people’s financial capability through online and mobile channels. Mobile-based delivery of information, available whenever and wherever the learner needs it, would reach communities at greater scale than in-person programs currently can.

Accion has already rolled out such tools in Latin America.  The platform <a href="https://www.accion.org/these-women-are-growing-their-businesses-and-their-confidence">Ovante</a> is helping entrepreneurs build and enhance their business skills, grow their enterprises, and adopt healthy habits for using financial products and services. Users access the platform on their mobile phone or computer and receive information and tools to improve their business in real time. Based on the experience in Latin America, Ovante will be tailored for the Indian market and will aim to provide low-income microentrepreneurs with the tools they need to run their businesses and support their families and communities.

<em>Arisha Salman contributed to this article. </em>

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