Latest
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Making Bank Accounts Work for Women: Lessons on Designing Gender-Centric Financial Services
Papua New Guinea has the highest gender gap in financial inclusion in the Pacific region, with women 29% less likely to have access to formal financial services. Akhand Tiwari and Moinuddin Mohammed at MicroSave (MSC) explore how MiBank, a local micro-bank, has boosted women's inclusion through gender-centric product design and outreach strategies – and what other providers can learn from their success.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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Data in Real Time: How Digitalisation is Transforming Financial Policies in Africa
For the past year, Cenfri and Finmark Trust have been partnering with NextBillion to share insights from their Insight2Impact (i2i) initiative, a five-year program that has sought to improve financial inclusion and related public policies through the smarter use of data. As the Openi2i Series concludes, i2i lead Hennie Bester takes a look back at the program and the learnings it has generated. In this interview, he explores how digitalisation and data are transforming the policy landscape in Africa and beyond.
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- Finance, Technology
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Six Key Trends Driving Affordable, Low-Carbon Growth in the Rural E-Mobility Sector
In the last five years, a vast array of e-mobility startups have sprung up across sub-Saharan Africa, focused largely on electric bikes, scooters and three-wheelers. As Richa Goyal at Energy Saving Trust points out, these businesses are accelerating Africa's shift toward low-carbon transportation, while also boosting local manufacturing, skill development and job creation. She outlines six key trends and business model features in this emerging sector.
- Categories
- Energy
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Data + Digitization: The Key To Helping African Banks and Microfinance Institutions Support Their Customers During COVID-19
Thanks to COVID-19, the IMF projects 2020 to be the worst year for Africa's economic growth since its record-keeping began in 1970. And concerns are also mounting about the likelihood of an increase in non-performing loans, which will impact businesses, industries and individuals across the continent. Cate Rung at Pngme explores how financial technology – including a unified data API platform – can help banks and microfinance institutions weather this crisis, while delivering services that comply with social distancing measures.
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- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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Reversal of Fortune: Five Ways Biden’s Win Will Boost Impact Investing in Emerging Markets
In the aftermath of the U.S. election, there's been considerable discussion of how Biden’s victory will impact different industries. According to Josh Knauer at JumpScale, one particular sector that will benefit is impact investing. He explains how the work of impact investors had become more difficult during the Trump years, and why there's reason to believe that the incoming administration will give the sector’s efforts in emerging markets a significant boost.
- Categories
- Energy, Finance, Investing, Technology
