Furthering the Digitalization of Financial Products in Colombia

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In September 2020, after two months of work, we finished our first remote assignment in Colombia with Crezcamos and Kyla Persky. Crezcamos is a microfinance institution that advocates for the financial inclusion and training of low-income populations in Colombia. Their products and services are divided into two types: financial services and protection solutions. Crezcamos also offers training services on basic finance and smallholder farming to its clients. The aim of the assignment was to help Crezcamos improve its use of technology to capture, manage, and analyze its client data. 

Kyla Persky is a Fintech and microfinance specialist that helped the host with their digital transformation. Kyla analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the digitalization of their products, ran a pilot to help Crezcamos communicate with new clients via WhatsApp, and worked with their call-center staff to outline and streamline the digital process. At the end of the assignment, Kyla submitted a complete diagnosis of Crezcamos’ current use of technology for client management with an improvement plan.

We feel incredibly proud of our host and volunteer, who actively engaged and communicated during the entire assignment. Crezcamos provided valuable information and support, that allowed Kyla to fully grasp the context of their work and the specific objectives of the project. Both the host and volunteer commented that they were not sure about having a fully remote assignment at first, but that this made the work very flexible and gave both sides the necessary space to truly reflect, review and evaluate what was needed. The willingness to learn from Crezcamos, together with the constructive analysis made by Kyla, were a perfect combination that made this assignment incredibly successful! 


“This assignment was, by far, one of the most fascinating and fulfilling professional engagements I have had to date. I was absolutely blown away by the support I received both from F2F and Crezcamos and cannot thank them enough for their enthusiasm and energy, as well as for simply placing their faith in me to be able to get the job done. In spite of the inherent challenges associated with a remote assignment, we were able to maintain an open and ongoing dialogue and candid rapport, bouncing ideas off of one another, sharing responsibilities and time, and challenging each member of our group to operate beyond the bounds of their comfort zone. It was an absolute pleasure working with this team and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I look forward to seeing how Crezcamos improves in the weeks and months to come!”

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