Arisha Salman

Financial Sector Specialist

Arisha Salman is a Financial Sector Specialist with CGAP’s Finance for Inclusive Development outcome area. Her work is focused on unlocking how Data can enhance the value of financial services for low-income and underserved individuals with a focus on the development, implementation, and scale-up of Open Finance frameworks as well as on closing gender gaps at the country level. Arisha was also a member of the team that developed the Strategy for CGAP VII. She previously supported CGAP’s work on Digital Business Models with a focus on Inclusive Digital Banking and the Digital Divide.

Before joining CGAP, Arisha worked for over five years on digital financial inclusion, SME development and gender mainstreaming in South and Southeast Asia. She has held positions as a Management Consultant with the Financial Services Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and with the Gender Equity Thematic Group at the Asian Development Bank. Arisha holds a master's degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Delhi. She is fluent in Hindi and Urdu.

By Arisha Salman

Blog

How Do Gender Gaps in Financial Inclusion Link to Economic Indicators?

The Global Findex 2021 shows that while the gap in account ownership between men and women is closing in some countries, there are still significant regional differences. We explore four factors that might impact the gender gap in account ownership.
Blog

Kickstarting CICO Rural Agent Network Innovation: 5 Tips for Funders

Based on pilots in five countries (Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Morocco and Pakistan), we share early insights on how funders can engage with stakeholders in Cash-in Cash-out (CICO) rural agent networks to kickstart innovation. 
Blog

Consumer Protection: Top Policy Priority for Funders. What Lies Ahead?

Financial inclusion funders have been elevating financial consumer protection as a priority. Our latest blog discusses how funders can turn that interest into action.
Blog

Digitally Included, Yet Poor: What Do Their Data Trails Tell Us?

Many people who generate significant amounts of digital data are poor. Who are they? What sort of data are they generating? And how can it be used to make financial services more useful to them?
Blog

Can Free Phones Close the Digital Gender Divide?

Mobile phone affordability — the focus of most programs to distribute free phones to women — is far from the only barrier to women’s use of mobile phones.