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What’s the Point of Investing in Financial Inclusion? A New Review Aims to Help Investors Maximize Their Impact
Is social investment in financial systems and services justified? It's a natural question when considering the financial inclusion sector’s development, say Timothy Ogden at the Financial Access Initiative and Machal Karim at CDC Group. And it’s not just critical microcredit studies that have raised the question: The history of social investment in financial systems doesn’t yield many obvious success stories. They discuss a new review of the theory and empirical evidence – both positive and negative – for investing in financial systems as a development strategy.
- Categories
- Finance
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How Artificial Intelligence Can Simplify International Development Research: An Intriguing Experiment (Involving NextBillion)
International development professionals must often spend a great deal of time trying to keep up with news, trends and research about their area of activity – and this requires a lot of manual labor. But much of this can now be automated and aided by artificial intelligence (AI). Jacob Rosen and Ashirul Amin at BFA explore how they used AI to sort and categorize a vast amount of development-focused content online, using NextBillion's 5,000+ article library as a test case. The results of their experiment show how AI can help people reduce time and labor and learn more efficiently.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The “Financial Inclusion Compass 2019”: e-MFP to Launch 2nd Annual Survey of Financial Inclusion Trends
A positive reception to the survey and the Compass has meant that, one year on, e-MFP is ready to launch the second annual survey.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Press Release: VisionFund International Celebrates 15 Years
Operating through a network of microfinance institutions in 28 countries, VisionFund works alongside World Vision to empower families living in impoverished communities with limited access to formal financial services to overcome poverty.
- Categories
- Finance
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Facebook’s Crypto Launch Partner Kiva Is Introducing a Refugee Investment Fund
The fund will be part of Kiva Capital Management, a new shop that will join what the Global Impact Investing Network estimates as the $502 billion market for investments aimed at positive social change.
- Categories
- Finance
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Nigeria Gets Its First Microfinance Bank for Education
“If you fund education, you are touching all sectors of the economy, Two-thirds of Nigerians send their children to private schools. The public school system is inadequate to meet the growing population so the private sector has a role to play to ensure that everybody is educated.”
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance
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Scaling your Social Enterprise – While Handling your Success: A Q&A with Microfinance Pioneer Alex Counts
Few people know more about the opportunities and pitfalls of scaling a social enterprise than Alex Counts. A seminal figure in microfinance, he led Grameen Foundation's growth from a $6,000 start-up to a $20 million powerhouse, while playing a key role in the often turbulent expansion of the broader microfinance sector. NextBillion caught up with Counts to discuss his latest book, “Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind.” The book – and this Q&A – provide essential advice for social impact leaders working to grow their organizations – and dealing with the new tensions scale can bring.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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The Front Lines of the Digital Revolution: Reasons for Hope and Caution as India Rides the Fintech Boom
India is now the world's second biggest fintech hub, trailing only the U.S. Its digital payments market is set to grow to US $500 billion by 2020, with its overall digital economy predicted to reach 30% of the country’s GDP by 2025. According to Moin Qazi, this ongoing fintech revolution offers a preview of what global banking may look like a generation from now, delivering vast benefits to both providers and customers. But it isn't free of downsides – for both traditional financial institutions losing their market share to tech-based entrants, and for customers navigating new risks.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology