What we did
The project
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Mastercard Foundation (MCF) sought to improve the services provided by financial institutions to the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. The hypothesis was that by improving the training and quality of service of employees at financial institutions, key populations would greatly benefit from products designed specifically for them.
The ideal platform would be unique, looking at the upstream operations of financial institutions as a way to promote financial inclusion in the region.
Needs and fit assessment
Understanding how people learn was just as critical, if not more so, than getting the technology right: while digital learning is the most scalable and effective way to build capacity remotely, few courses were available for digital learning that reflected local learning experiences. We partnered with local training service providers to understand how they deliver training and the most successful components of their training models, while building their capacity and understanding of digital business models.
Building and branding
Drawing inspiration from both the local financial industries as well as the founding partners’ brands themselves, we developed a brand persona for Gateway Academy that would evoke trust and leadership, as well as partnership.
After running a design workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with users and partners, we learned that most users would benefit from being able to take courses on their phones. In response, we designed both an offline and mobile experience in addition to our desktop platform. Using what we learned from our in-person consultations, we developed a streamlined user interface and experience to pair with our new brand.
Roll-out and expansion
Gateway Academy grew in three years from a nascent idea all the way to a commercially viable product serving many financial institutions in the region.
In June 2020, Gateway Academy was successfully merged with Digital Frontiers, a Bill & Melinda Gates-funded learning organization based in South Africa, to continue its journey and mission.
