Biography

Mateo Cabello is a Political Economy specialist with extensive experience in the area of financial development and access to financial services, particularly in rural areas. Prior to joining OPM, Mateo managed the Spanish-Bolivian Microfinance Programme, a second-tier programme aimed to reduce financial exclusion in Bolivia. As a part of his PhD, he directed an extensive research programme (2003-2007) on the policy process leading to the regulation of microfinance activity in Central America. His professional experience especially in countries noted for being the cradle of what is considered best practices in the area of financial development (both in Africa and Latin America) equips him with the capacity to understand both the policy processes to create more enabling frameworks for economic growth as well as stakeholders’ responses to different stimulus and incentives. He has recently conducted various assignments on different African countries to explore how to increase the efficiency of financial services in rural areas. In the last couple of years he was also involved in various projects within the extractive industries sector (mainly oil and mining) exploring issues like accountability, transparency and corruption from a Political Economy perspective.