Mary Ellen Iskenderian's Women's World Banking has partnered with more than 70 organizations around the world to reach over 185 million women.
Within hours of Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2022, the country's financial system began to show signs of strain. As banks swiftly shut down, the Ukrainian economy quickly spiraled into wartime mode and civilians fled en masse.
One solution is to issue these individuals digital identities on a blockchain, that is, a decentralized digital ledger that does not rely on a centralized authority, such as a government, to maintain the identification system. The World Food Program, for example, has provided refugee assistance through the blockchain to those displaced from their homes.
Aniqa Sandhu, who at the time was the chief digital officer for Jazz, was concerned that only 12% of users were women. Sandhu and Iskenderian both saw potential in onboarding Pakistan's unbanked women into the financial sector via a digital bank account through the JazzCash mobile wallet.