Harnessing AI for Gender Inclusivity in Financial Lending: The RightProfile™ Model

Reall is excited to spotlight its ongoing partnership with India-based technology firm, Syntellect, to advance access to affordable housing finance across Africa and Asia. Through Syntellect’s innovative platform, RightProfile™, lenders can now more accurately assess the creditworthiness of unbanked, low-income, and informally employed individuals, who are often excluded from traditional financial systems. This collaboration plays a pivotal role in Reall’s mission to unlock housing markets for underserved populations, providing a much-needed pathway for millions of families to secure homeownership and drive sustainable urban development in emerging markets. 

Financial inclusion has become a global priority, especially in regions where access to credit remains uneven; globally, over 1 billion women remain unbanked. This lack of access to financial services perpetuates gender inequality, limiting women’s ability to grow businesses, improve livelihoods, and achieve economic independence. This inequality is largely due to the informality of many jobs held by women. Informal employment, which often lacks official contracts and stable income, makes it difficult for women to meet the formal financial sector’s requirements for credit. Without documented proof of earnings or assets, women are perceived as higher-risk borrowers, which in turn limits their access to loans and other financial services.  

Microfinance institutions and lending bodies are playing an essential role in addressing these disparities. However, there remains a pressing need for financial tools that cater specifically to underserved segments, ensuring that lending processes are inclusive and equitable. This is where Syntellect’s RightProfile™ comes in. RightProfile™ is an innovative platform that leverages AI-powered machine learning algorithms to analyse vast amounts of alternative data, enabling lenders to accurately assess credit risk for underserved populations, even in cases where traditional credit data is unavailable, making the lending process smarter and more efficient. 

How RightProfile™ Works: Features and Dashboard 

RightProfile™ automates the borrowing process, simplifying credit assessments by collecting and analysing detailed personal, business, and financial profiles. These profiles are tailored to meet the needs of various customer segments, particularly those in the informal sector. 

Key features include Alternative Data Ingestion, which pulls information from sources like AI powered geocoding intelligent APIs, RightProfile™ proprietary UI, unique trade specific templates, RightProfile™ Visual Intelligence (Object Detection, Facial Verification, Location insights) and financial screens for multi-dimensional credit risk assessment, providing a comprehensive view of borrowers often invisible to traditional lenders. Advanced Credit Analysis uses a proprietary algorithm to reduce human error by offering loan officers customized templates for detailed credit risk assessments. The platform also leverages Machine Learning Algorithms to predict loan defaults, helping institutions like KWFT assess loan delinquency risks over time. 

One of the standout features of RightProfile™ is its interactive dashboard, which provides stakeholders with a complete view of their portfolio. The RightProfile™ Dashboard enhances decision-making by providing a full portfolio view. Users can filter data down to specifics like city, branch, or borrower age, and track key metrics such as residence history, business details, and loan performance. This real-time, granular insight helps lenders confidently assess and serve their customer base more effectively. Additionally, RightProfile™ offers geo-tagging, document uploads, and video uploads as part of its on-field assessment capabilities. It is equipped with features that predict customer growth, competitor analysis, and risk-based pricing, providing a half-minute lending decision recommendation condensed in a standardized RightProfile™ Report which transforming the speed and accuracy of loan decisions. 

The following figures have been created by the RightProfile™ team, to demonstrate the interactivity of the dashboard and display the type of information given. They have been mocked-up with randomised data due to the security risks with publishing client delinquency rates. 

RightProfile – Examples Business Dashboard (Filter Applied: Age, Business Profile)

RightProfile – Example Personal Dashboard

RightProfile™ Example Performance Dashboard (filter Applied: State, Branch, Business Profile)

The Syntellect Model: A Gender-Neutral Approach with a Gender-Inclusive Outcome 

RightProfile™ is the flagship product of Syntellect, and it is designed to re-imagine credit assessment for unbanked, credit-invisible individuals in informal economies. By utilising alternative data sources and advanced machine learning, the platform provides lenders with a robust understanding of borrowers who traditionally lack formal credit histories. At its core, RightProfile™ was not designed with a gender-specific bias; it is a product focused on enhancing lending efficiency through predictive analytics. However, its application across Indian and Kenyan markets demonstrates the potential it has to address the gender imbalance of credit access globally. It can and will expand access to financial services for women and other underserved groups, making it an essential tool for gender inclusivity in financial lending. 

RightProfile™’s application in portfolios like that of KWFT, the Kenya Women Microfinance Bank highlights its capacity to promote inclusivity. Syntellect’s machine learning model is currently being applied to predict the likelihood of loan defaults for women microfinance borrowers. In Kenya, many of the small business and personal loans are secured by women for ventures ranging from solar cookers to incremental housing loans. With the vast majority of microfinance clients being women, Syntellect’s model has effectively positioned itself as a tool that supports gender inclusivity by default and demonstrates the platform’s potential to help bridge the financial gender gap. 

Microfinance institutions like KWFT focus almost entirely on women borrowers. By using the Syntellect model, institutions can not only improve their risk assessments but also generate insights on gender-based financial behaviour. For instance, by analysing default rates across different loan types, the model can help determine whether women are more or less likely to default compared to men in similar financial conditions. This not only enhances the accuracy of risk assessments but also empowers lenders to develop more tailored financial products for women, addressing their specific needs. Syntellect’s inclusion of this capability helps financial institutions better understand and address gender disparities in access to credit.  

“For the first time now, you will be able to actually have data insights on how portfolios move and how things work for only women borrowers, which is big, because we don’t really have that data anywhere right now.”

Avinash Kadam, Data Scientist at Syntellect 

Broader Applications and the Future of Financial Inclusion 

While the success of RightProfile™ in Kenya has showcased its potential for promoting gender inclusivity, the platform’s applications extend far beyond microfinance. In markets like India, where affordable home loans are more common, RightProfile™ is being used to streamline credit assessments across different lending products. The flexibility of the platform means that it can be adapted to various financial environments, helping institutions worldwide improve their approach to inclusive lending. 

With the ability to gather data on borrower demographics, loan performance, and default probabilities, RightProfile™ empowers financial institutions to take a more data-driven approach to lending. This not only enhances operational efficiency but also helps bridge the gender gap in financial inclusion by giving women the credit opportunities they deserve. 

RightProfile™ is particularly well-positioned to capture an untapped market, with the potential to serve over 1.7 billion unbanked adults globally, nearly a third of whom live in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. This makes the tool not just inclusive but transformative for financial institutions looking to enter high-growth, underserved markets.  

Conclusion 

The partnership between Reall and Syntellect marks a critical step in reshaping housing finance for emerging economies. By harnessing AI-driven analytics through the RightProfile™ platform, lenders can confidently serve informal and low-income borrowers, expanding access to mortgage finance in regions where it has traditionally been out of reach. This collaboration has the potential to transform housing markets across Africa and Asia, creating sustainable homeownership opportunities for millions. 

RightProfile™’s use of advanced machine learning models and alternative data enables more inclusive lending practices, especially for women borrowers. With an intuitive interface and powerful dashboard, the platform empowers financial institutions to champion gender inclusivity while improving credit risk assessments. The platform’s ability to efficiently convert critical data into actionable insights—delivering over 14,000 customer profiles in 11 months and reducing decision time from 20 days to just 3—highlights its transformative impact. 

As financial institutions, developers, and governments embrace the opportunities presented by affordable housing, Reall and Syntellect will continue leading the way in driving financial inclusion. Together, they are unlocking the untapped potential of the $17 trillion housing market and building a future where access to credit is widespread, inclusive, and fair. 

Blog Written by Hannah Jayne Robinson (Reall)