FPM ASBL is a not-for-profit company established in DR Congo in 2010 at the initiative of various development institutions. Its mission is to provide technical and financial support to financial institutions targeting the MSME sector in DR Congo with the goal to promote financial inclusion.

One of the institutions supported by FPM ASBL is Equity Bank Congo, a bank with a strategy to reach a million clients in DR Congo. This desire to grow significantly requires Equity Bank Congo to deploy alternative distribution channels, to provide ease of access to clients in more remote areas.

FPM ASBL contracted IPC and partner PHB Development to support Equity Bank Congo in its banking agent operations, focusing on rural areas where there is no existing branch network.

Experts from IPC and PHB implemented the following tasks:

• planning and conducting a market study including interviews with agents, existing and potential clients, mystery shopping and an analysis of competition
• presenting results in a workshop with recommendations on the bank’s commercial strategy and customer value proposition for its agency banking service
• conducting a diagnostic of the bank’s organisational set-up and internal capacities in the context of agency banking
• presenting the diagnostic results in a workshop including recommendations on improving organisational set-up, building capacity and strengthening the agent banking strategy
• designing an agent banking improvement implementation plan including performance measurement parameters
• conducting regular meetings with the bank’s project manager, the agency banking team and senior management