Mayada El-Zoghbi

Mayada El-Zoghbi is the managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion. Until September 2019, Ms. El-Zoghbi was a senior financial sector specialist and led CGAP’s strategy, research and development unit. Her work focused on leading CGAP’s research on women’s financial inclusion, financial services in crisis environments and other emerging topics.

Before joining CGAP, she founded and managed a development consulting firm working with funding agencies such as the IFC and USAID. She led numerous technical assistance, evaluation, and research assignments and also served as a research director for a USAID knowledge management initiative on microfinance and conflict, where she authored numerous papers and facilitated many industry learning events. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs from SIPA at Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Minnesota. She is bilingual in Arabic and English.

By Mayada El-Zoghbi

Blog

Financial Inclusion Can Reduce Inequality and Bring Peace

Global inequality is on the rise, and it is contributing to growing disenchantment and conflict. There is an opportunity for financial inclusion to address these challenges and to make a difference in fragile and conflict-affected states.
Research

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

While the SDGs do not explicitly target financial inclusion, greater access to financial services is a key enabler for many of them. By reviewing the research on the link between financial inclusion and development, this working paper shows where and how financial services can help achieve the SDGs.
Research

Understanding Demand for Sharia-Compliant Loans

This Brief explores the findings and their implications from the study in Jordan. While the results are only valid for the Jordanian market, if similar studies were done elsewhere, we may begin to see a clearer picture of demand for sharia-compliant services.
Blog

What Excludes Women from Formal Finance in the Arab States?

Women are less than half as likely as men to have an account in the Arab world. Why such a dismal record?
Blog

Why do Many Data Solutions Fail to Meet Expectations?

2015 saw a shift in the data and information solutions built to serve the microfinance industry. Many of these solutions failed to meet the expectations of their founders and were shut down or scaled back.