Nathalie Assouline

An economist by training, Nathalie Assouline started her professional career, thirty years ago, in the Economic and Financial Studies Departments of large international service groups. With a master’s degree in developing economics, she quickly became involved in the promotion of financial services for urban and rural micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa. During the decades 1990 – 2010, she contributed to the development of microfinance, in particular in Central and West Africa, Morocco and Madagascar, through technical assistance to MFIs and in advisory support to funders (AFD, IFAD, UNCDF, World Bank, GIZ…) and to regulators and governments in formulating and assessing their policies and projects regarding microfinance in these countries.

Gradually and with the digital revolution, the issue of access to financial services for MSMEs has widened with the adoption of a more comprehensive approach to financial inclusion. In this context, Nathalie Assouline has put her thorough and diversified field experience at the service of policy makers, regulators and development funders to formulate and evaluate financial inclusion and agricultural financing policies and projects.

This type of support is comprehensive. It takes the form of financial sector diagnostics and demand assessment in order to formulate policy and strategic recommendations, based on concrete and operational measures. Market and regulatory constraints to the development of inclusive financial services including digital and agri finance and including gender issues, consumer protection of financial services and financial education are addressed. The formulation of these policies also includes recommendations in terms of measuring inclusion, the monitoring and evaluation process and their governance.

More recently, aware of the need to strengthen the capacity of users of financial services and to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge, after obtaining an audiovisual license for digital technology obtained in 2013, she also became involved in the design and production of educational modules and training in financial services.

Her competencies are as follows:

– Formulation of financial inclusion policies and projects (Guinea, Senegal, Congo, Burkina Faso, WAMU…)

– Monitoring and evaluation of financial inclusion (indicators and collection and reporting system) ((Guinea, Senegal, Congo, WAMU…)

– Formulation of agricultural financing policies and projects (Haïti, Senegal, Niger, Cameroon, Morocco…)

– Financial sector diagnostics (assessment of the offer of financial institutions, including digital finance and the legal and regulatory and supervisory framework) (Mauritania, Madagascar)

– Diagnosis of the demand and access constraints to financial services for MSMEs (Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal …)

– Formulation of financial education policies (national programs, strategies) (Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire)

– Diagnosis of regulatory and supervisory practices and recommendations for financial consumers protection (Guinea, CEMAC)

– Design and production of audio-visual and interactive educational modules (Interactive documentaire on responsible microfinance, training movy on insurance, …)

– Carrying out economic studies relating to the financing of MSMEs (Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Morocco, …)

– Evaluation: financial inclusion strategies and programs, agricultural finance projects and educational modules and projects (many projects from AFD, IFAD, ADB, UNCDF…)