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Celebrating Zenith Bank's Product Innovation Team!

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Zenith Bank Product Team for their unwavering commitment to addressing customer needs. Their dedication and hard work, built on in-depth field research and design sessions in our lab, have brought this groundbreaking idea to life.

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Celebrating the Stanbic IBTC Product Innovation Team!

We are pleased to recognize the achievements of the Stanbic IBTC Product Innovation Team.
This group participated in our Product Innovation Lab in 2023, where they were trained in human-centered design principles.

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Policy monitoring
and evaluation

We monitor the financial service policy landscape
evaluating the impact of regulation on financial
inclusion progress. We also advocate for policy reform and make actionable recommendations based on research and ecosystem consultation.

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The Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) is an initiative led by Lagos Business School, dedicated to creating an inclusive financial services ecosystem. We drive industry change through research, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement, bridging knowledge gaps and equipping the financial services community with tools to enhance financial inclusion.

SIDFS supports product innovation for the unbanked and underserved through its Product Innovation Lab, fosters best practices via its Community of Practice, trains regulators and policymakers on sustainable business models, and collaborates with partners to promote gender parity and financial empowerment for underserved populations.

What we do

Product Innovation Lab (PIL)

The product innovative Lab is an initiative of the sustainable and inclusive Digital Financial Service (SIDFS) initiative of the Lagos Business school . The lab supports interdisciplinary (or cross functional) product development teams of banks and other financial services providers (FSP) with design thinking approaches, specifically human centered design, to product innovation.

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Sustainable Business Models Certificate Course

For regulators and policymakers, this course helps industry regulators and policymakers understand and optimize financial service business models to serve diverse customer segments, especially low-income citizens. Participants learn to create effective regulations that support sustainable financial inclusion efforts.

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CO-IMPACT : Engendering The Nigerian Financial Ecosystem

In collaboration with Co-Impact, SIDFS is dedicated to achieving gender parity in senior leadership and executive positions within Nigeria’s financial services sector. This partnership aims to enhance access to savings products for over 7.2 million low-income women who are unbanked or underbanked, thereby promoting financial inclusion and economic empowerment for women.

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Engendering The Nigerian Financial Ecosystem

Research. Equip. Engage. Inform

Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) is a university-based research and advocacy initiative with the goal of creating an inclusive ecosystem for financial services. Through focused research as well as active engagement with all stakeholders in the industry, we further the case for financial inclusion.

Founded in 2015 at Lagos Business School,

SIDFS is the first research center for digital financial services, financial literacy and financial inclusion established at a Nigerian management school. Our modus operandi combines a pragmatic approach to responsible market development with an evidence-based advocacy platform to inform policy and influence key decision makers in the industry.

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Research

We contribute to the evidence base for financial inclusion via studies of diverse problematic areas across the supply-side, demand-side and policy dimensions. Our research provides financial service ecosystem actors with practical knowledge supporting solutions to supply-side and demand-side constraints limiting financial inclusion.

Equip

We are committed to building capacity among stakeholders, providing them with practical skills, knowledge and cutting edge toolkits they need to serve excluded populations sustainably. Our capacity building projects are varied and cater to both regulators and financial service providers.

Engage

We convene and facilitate knowledge-sharing sessions between financial service providers, regulators and policymakers to enhance ecosystem coordination and FSPs’ ability to leverage existing policy levers. As ecosystem thought leaders, we strive to guide these knowledge sharing sessions and conversations along thematic areas to ensure insights and conclusions are rooted and supported by evidence from research.

Inform

Through the media, our industry newsletter, strategic live events and conferences, as well as our annual state of market report, we endeavour to keep the ecosystem updated on the most relevant financial inclusion news, trends and insights which will help them serve the financially excluded and underserved.

Funding Partners | Bill & Melissa Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates are the funding partner of sustainable
and Inclusive Digital Financial Services.

Project Deliverables

Our modus operandi combines a pragmatic approach to responsible market development with an evidence-based advocacy platform to inform policy and influence key decision makers in the industry.

Sustainable Business Models For Financial Inclusion

2016-2019

To address regulatory gaps and market structures inhibiting financial inclusion of Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid. This was achieved by enhancing the evidence-base for digital financial services (DFS) in Nigeria and impacting market-enabling policy for DFS.

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Nigeria DFS
Observatory

2019-2022

To resource, enable and catalyse financial service providers (FSPs) to develop sustainable business models and compelling value propositions in order to deliver products that improve the financial well-being of Nigerians, particularly the poor, women and rural dwellers.

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DFS Library

Latest news, insights and developments impacting the nation's financial inclusion journey