Cynthia Wandia is Co-founder and CEO of Kwara, a digital banking platform for savings and credit cooperatives, starting in Kenya. By digitising these community banks, Cynthia is showing how technology can be leveraged for communities who are often excluded from traditional banks. After studying electrical engineering and working in several different countries around the world, Cynthia set up Kwara in Kenya in 2018. It currently serves 28,000 members.

In Kenya, mobile money is ubiquitous, and as more and more people own and can afford a mobile phone, payment options and innovations in business have reached a far greater number of people than ever before. But Kwara sees that simply introducing mobile payments is not enough to support people in ‘the last mile’.

Cynthia and her team believe that the only really fair financial institution is the one that people build for themselves; something which humanity has been doing for centuries. Kwara’s aim is to help communities digitise so that they can own the benefits of technology that other sectors have been able to enjoy.

SDG #10 Reducing Inequality

www.kwara.com