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NEW DELHI: Grameen Foundation India, an innovator in the use of digital technology to advance financial inclusion, has named Prabhat Labh as its new CEO. Labh succeeds Chandni Ohri, who helped to launch the company and who served as CEO since 2011.
Grameen Foundation India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit dedicated to ending poverty and hunger.
The foundation aims to provide strategic and technical expertise to leading social enterprises, financial services providers and technology providers to extend financial services and information to underserved communities, especially women.
Grameen’s focus is on developing technology-enabled solutions to drive access and usage of a range of financial services. The foundation’s institutional partners include commercial banks, mobile network operators, microfinance institutions, healthcare providers and others. Together, the foundation creates solutions that help poor people to generate income, build assets, strengthen their resilience and manage risk.
Labh, according to the press statement, is an international development expert with more than two decades of experience in leading programs and initiatives across Asia, Africa and North America. Labh brings with him an in-depth knowledge of financial inclusion.
“This is a time of extraordinary transformation and opportunity in India. Prabhat’s expertise makes him the ideal person to expand Grameen Foundation India’s work to bring viable financial services to the country’s poorest regions,” said Steve Hollingworth, President and CEO of Grameen Foundation. “Our achievements in India would not have been possible without the leadership of Chandni Ohri and we are pleased that she will continue to play key role in Grameen Foundation’s global work.”
“I feel honored to be appointed as the CEO of Grameen Foundation India,” said Prabhat Labh. “The team's work using technology to expand financial and health innovations is especially exciting and I look forward to accelerating our growth and impact for the betterment of poor and underserved communities in India.”
Labh previously designed and led programs at The MasterCard Foundation that focused on access to savings services for low-income populations. Combining insights from the fields of sociology, behavioral economics and technology, he developed a coherent strategy that succeeded in extending access to savings services for millions of people across seventeen countries in Africa.
Earlier, Labh served as the Senior Technical Advisor for CARE USA’s Pan-Africa microfinance initiative ‘Access Africa,’ where he provided technical assistance to more than a dozen country programs in Asia and Africa. He has also served on the faculty of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, where he focused on the development of youth-led micro enterprises and rural industries.