Tools Clinic: Using Financial Diaries to Develop Products for Women

Haimanot Tiruneh is a technology manager with a passion for creating practical solutions. With a background in mathematics and physics during his undergraduate studies, he brings a strong foundation in analytical thinking and problem-solving to his work. Haimanot has played a pivotal role in developing and delivering FINBIT, a multi-purpose financial monitoring system. Haimanot is currently pursuing a part-time Master's degree in Analytics at Georgia Institute of Technology which is helping further refine FINBIT.

Frehiwot Sinishaw has a master’s degree in public international law. She has 6+ years’ work experience with L-IFT. She is responsible for recruitment, coaching and monitoring field researchers and supervisors. She assists in giving training to field researchers, report writing, proposal writing and data processing. She contributes to communication including assisting in social media and website activities, in addition to document organization and facilitation of conferences and meetings.

John Kamau has over 6 years of experience in data, diaries research and machine learning. He has a degree in Economics and is finalizing a Master's degree in data analytics. He is proficient in Python and R and has worked with visualization technologies like tableau and Dash. He has worked with startups in the financial space building credit scoring systems and is currently the data lead at L-IFT.

Mhlalisi Ncube is Programme Manager at L-IFT BV responsible for its activities in Southern Africa from his base in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. His focus is on enabling people to self-report their financial diaries and themselves benefit from the reported data. He manages the IMBE work with 2000 ECD preschool entrepreneurs self-reporting in FINBIT, the Corner Shop project across 11 countries, and recently started FINBIT work with Africa Foundation’s hustler programme. Mhlalisi studied Sociology and Anthropology at Manhattanville College in New York.

Theresa Thin is L-IFT’s Programme Officer in Myanmar. She is responsible for recruitment, training, coaching and supervising the field supervisors and promoters/data volunteers for the different L-IFT Myanmar projects. She liaises with the clients on logistics and is an expert in working with the different software tools (including the FINBIT App) that L-IFT uses. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Dagon University and a Diploma in Business Management from De La Salle of St. Benedict College. 

Dorcas Thorpe is a Digital Financial Service expert with over 9 years of experience in the Microfinance sub-sector in Nigeria. Her work with the leading Microfinance Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa - LAPO Microfinance Bank - birthed the Alternative Delivery Channels Group focused on developing electronic channels for product and service delivery to clients. She currently leads the Corporate Planning team at LAPO MfB with a focus on creating winning strategies for continuous impact and sustainability empowered by digitization. 

Md. Sazaduzzaman is the Managing Director and Acting Country Representative of BRAC Myanmar. He is currently driving the BRAC Microfinance company and NGO operations in Myanmar with a focus on managing business with a double bottom line of financial and social outcomes. In his past 15 years of financial and social development experience in multiple countries, his greatest professional beliefs are ‘Adaptive Leadership’ and ‘Impact on Scale’.

Jenny Morgan is FinEquity's Impact Pathways Thematic Lead. She has over 15 years of experience in inclusive financial growth, entrepreneurship and small business development, women’s economic empowerment, and resilience.