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Optimism, Confusion and Soul-Searching: The Financial Inclusion Compass 2019 Reveals a Sector at an Inflection Point
It's not your imagination: Financial inclusion is getting more complex. As Sam Mendelson at e-MFP points out, the sector expands in depth and breadth each year – from new products and players to increased expectations of impact. To cut through the confusion, e-MFP publishes The Financial Inclusion Compass, a report based on a broad survey of stakeholders, who share their views on the sector’s present and future. He discusses some highlights from the 2019 report.
- Categories
- Finance
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2020 Will See Mass Market Adoption of Financial Inclusion. Here’s Why.
For many years financial inclusion has been considered a social initiative, part of corporations’ “doing good” role. But according to Josh Gosliner at Juvo, it’s becoming clear that there has to be a bottom-line incentive for companies to direct the necessary resources to the problem. He explores three trends, powered by the emergence of digital technology and big data, that promise to generate transformative business opportunities in financial inclusion in the coming year.
- Categories
- Finance
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When Inclusion is Not Inclusive: What Needs to Change to Achieve Meaningful Financial Inclusion for Women
India has achieved impressive growth in women's financial inclusion — recent statistics show that 79% of the country's women are financially included. But according to analysts at MSC, there are troubling questions about whether these women are truly benefiting from their newfound financial access. They discuss why financial inclusion often fails to impact female customers, and how viewing financial services for women through the lens of gender centrality could help.
- Categories
- Finance
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‘Are We There Yet?’: How to Deal with Delays – And Other Challenges – In Acquiring Financial Transaction Data
“Are we there yet?” It’s a familiar refrain to any parent who has taken a child on a long journey – and it's also a common dilemma for programs that promote data-driven decision-making in financial inclusion. As Karen Kühlcke at insight2impact explains, requests for financial transaction data from external organizations can involve delays of several months, even as the partner confidently claims that “the data is arriving soon.” She explores how to manage this challenge to gain faster data access.
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- Finance, Technology
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Nobody Reads Privacy Policies: Why We Need to Go Beyond Consent to Ensure Data Privacy
We all “say” we read the privacy policies when we agree to the terms and conditions on websites and apps - but up to 97% of people don't actually read them. And even if we read them, few of us can understand the legalese. Now that the age of Big Data has reached emerging markets, and digital tech makes obtaining and monetizing user data easier than ever before, this lack of data privacy is a growing concern. David Medine and Gayatri Murthy at CGAP explore the problem – and some innovative tools that can help protect the world’s newest and most vulnerable digital consumers.
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- Finance, Technology
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The Tech Revolution in Financial Inclusion is Excluding Last-Mile Customers: Here are Four Ways to Reach Them
The world is experiencing a surge in internet access, with almost 300 million new users in 2019 – and this growth is happening especially in developing countries. But in many communities, this access is unreliable and unevenly distributed, say Rodrigo de Reyes and Mauricio Romero at Fundación Capital – and this has serious repercussions for digital and financial inclusion. They explore four key ways to deal with this challenge when serving last-mile customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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From Heritage to Habit: Why Digital Remittances Languish in Some Cultures But Surge in Others
Thirty years after their introduction, digital remittances have failed to take off. Some 90% of remittances still begin as cash and end as cash - even when banks are the intermediary. Lack of trust, access and interoperability - to name just a few challenges - are keeping lower-income people tied to costlier cash transfers. However, remittance providers and related fintech entities are exploring many new avenues to encourage recipients to keep remittances in the digital ecosystem and possibly use them for other financial products, writes Steven Davidson with Mondato.
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- Finance, Technology
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What’s Really Driving Africa’s ‘Investment Frenzy’?: An Entrepreneur Responds to Investor Concerns
In her much-discussed NextBillion article about avoiding “the Africa investment frenzy,” impact investor Lauren Cochran urged entrepreneurs to forego the “growth-at-all-costs” approach to scaling and “the ego-boost of big rounds and press releases.” But Zoona co-founder Mike Quinn argues that her advice ignores a reality that many investors don’t recognize. Quinn pushes back on Cochran's argument from an entrepreneur's perspective in this compelling counterpoint.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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