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Forget about Mobile Money, Invest in Insurtech Instead: The Untapped Triple Bottom Line Opportunity in Nigeria
Nigeria has one of the lowest insurance penetration rates in the world, at just 0.5%. But as Brian Yu at Shecluded explains, this low uptake means the industry is poised for disruption and growth. He explores how insurtech innovators are addressing the key problems plaguing the sector — namely, a lack of accessibility, affordability and customer trust — and calls for funders to look past their traditional focus on mobile money and invest in the insurtech businesses that are transforming the way the industry serves low-income customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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How Inclusive Finance Can Address the World’s Most Fundamental Challenge: Food Security, Nutrition and the European Microfinance Award 2023
According to the World Food Programme, the world is facing “a food crisis of unprecedented proportions.” Joana Afonso, Sam Mendelson, Fernando Naranjo Galindo and Daniel Rozas at the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) explore the multiple drivers and dimensions of food insecurity, and explain why the financial inclusion sector is uniquely placed to address it. They share how the e-MFP's European Microfinance Award 2023 is promoting innovative solutions to the crisis through its focus on “Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition.”
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Transportation
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Bringing Agricultural Insurance to Climate-Vulnerable Farmers: A Unique Pilot Program in Nepal Shows How to Unlock the Benefits of Index-Based Insurance for Smallholders
Nepal's topography and climatic conditions make it uniquely prone to natural disasters. As Maria Perdomo at UNCDF explains, these disasters threaten the country's economic development, and smallholder farmers and rural women are disproportionately affected. She discusses a UNCDF pilot program that brought agricultural insurance coverage to Nepali smallholders, and shares learnings from the program that could inform efforts to deliver insurance to farmers in other climate-vulnerable countries in Asia and beyond.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance
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Do Formal Savings Accounts Lead to Better Results for Low-Income Users?: Lessons from Two Customer-Centric Research Studies in Africa
The Savings Learning Lab was a six-year initiative that supported learning among Mastercard Foundation’s savings-focused financial inclusion programs across Africa. Program partners Savings at the Frontier and Scale2Save employed two different research approaches to better understand the impact of formal savings accounts on the lives of low-income people. Jenny Morgan at FinEquity discusses these approaches and the insights they generated, which went beyond access and usage to reveal the nuances of clients' savings preferences and behaviors.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Addressing India’s Economic Achilles Heel: Leveraging Trade and Digitalisation to Boost Women’s Labour Force Participation
India will soon become the world’s most populous country and third-largest economy, and it is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global economic forecast. But as international development consultant Abhirup Bhunia points out, the labour force participation rate for women in India is just 24% — far lower than most countries. He argues that India will not realize its potential if women’s economic participation fails to increase, and explores how the country can leverage international trade and digitalisation to empower women to drive its emergence as a global economic powerhouse.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Understanding the Coping Strategies of Financially Distressed Households: New Data Shows Their Value — And Lasting Consequences
COVID lockdowns had a grave impact on the financial health of low-income communities around the world — and as Scott Graham, Anahit Tevosyan and Andrée Simon at FINCA International point out, further financial shocks are a virtual certainty for these households. They share data gathered during the pandemic that reveals the coping strategies FINCA clients used to navigate the crisis — and they discuss how these strategies have left low-income households vulnerable to future economic disruptions and income shocks.
- Categories
- Finance
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Delivering on Mass Market Insurance in Africa: Debunking the Myth of Low Demand
Africa’s insurance penetration rate in 2019 was only 2.78%, significantly lower than the global average — and insurance usage is concentrated among the urban elite, with minimal adoption among the people with the most risk of financial shocks. According to Ted Pantone at Turaco, there's a widespread belief in the industry that this lack of uptake means African customers don't see value in the benefits of insurance. But he argues that Turaco’s rapid growth in Africa is debunking that myth. He explores three aspects of the company's model that have enabled it to unlock African customers' latent demand for insurance.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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We Asked Small Business Owners How Digitalization is Impacting Their Businesses: Here’s How They Responded
Digitalization has become the go-to strategy for improving the performance of Latin America’s micro and small enterprises (MSEs). But according to Daryl Collins and Maria Pia Torres at Decodis, we know little about how MSE owners themselves experience these changes. They share insights from Decodis' surveys of 114 mostly women-led MSEs in Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which highlight how digital solutions have become embedded in these businesses – and where business owners see the most value in digitalization.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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