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The Benefits – And Downsides – of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’: Is it Enhancing or Hindering Financial Inclusion?
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes offer consumers immediate possession of goods, which they pay for over time via (usually interest-free) installments. According to Sarah Corley at the Alliance of Digital Finance Associations and Lotte Schou Zibell at the Asian Development Bank, BNPL can expand financial inclusion and access to consumer goods in emerging economies – but by offering easier access to credit, it also presents some pitfalls. They discuss the growth of BNPL, its benefits and risks, and some key practices that can maximize its positive impacts while avoiding potential downsides.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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India’s Electric Vehicle Revolution: Six Trends That Will Shape the Sector in the Coming Years
India’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution is here. According to Venkat Rajaraman at Cygni, with the national government urging local manufacturers to switch to EVs – and subsidies and growing competition making them increasingly affordable – these vehicles are quickly becoming the country’s favorite mode of transportation. He explores six trends that are likely to shape the electric vehicle sector’s ongoing growth in India in the coming years.
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- Energy, Technology, Transportation
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Bringing Digital Innovation to the Global Art Market: An Innovative Platform Connects International Buyers to Emerging Markets Artists
Business models across all industries are rapidly embracing digital technology. But as Srikaran Masabathula at TapArt explains, the global art market remains stuck in its centuries-old, brick-and-mortar sales and distribution model – a model that perpetuates the age-old inequities in the art world, preventing talented artists from emerging economies from selling their artwork to global art buyers. He explores how TapArt is leveraging digital innovation to address these critical shortcomings and create a vibrant connection between art lovers and artists worldwide.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Nora’s Digitalization Challenges: What the MSE Sector Can Learn From the Digital Journey of a Woman Entrepreneur in Peru
Women entrepreneurs are a driving force for digitalization, showing less resistance and a higher level of trust toward digital business tools than their male counterparts. Gianmarco Cheng and Juan Navarrete at Fundación Capital share some key initial results from an ongoing study in Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which highlight ways to promote the adoption and use of digital tools by micro and small enterprises (MSEs). They discuss the impact these tools have had on Nora, a microentrepreneur in Peru, and explore the challenges and opportunities presented by digitalization efforts across the MSE sector.
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- Technology
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Augmented Reality for Financial Literacy: An Innovative Approach to Delivering Immersive Customer Education
India's Business Correspondents – i.e., retail agents engaged by banks to provide financial services at locations other than a bank branch – often struggle to learn about the new products and services their banks offer. And though online training has become the new normal during the pandemic, many of these agents find it difficult to complete. Piyush Singh and Rahul Ranjan Sinha at Grameen Foundation India discuss the value of augmented reality in addressing this challenge – and in enhancing online financial education more broadly for underserved customers.
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- Education, Finance, Technology
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Bringing the Digital Media Revolution to Africa: How Innovative Local Publications are Positioning Themselves for Rapid Growth
In Africa, legacy media outlets – both foreign and domestic – are often criticized for being politically biased and racially tone-deaf, while overlooking topics of critical importance to the public. But according to Tomiwa Aladekomo at Big Cabal Media, a new generation of digital publications are highlighting the issues and perspectives that legacy publishers have avoided. He explores how these innovators are navigating the inherent difficulties facing the media industry in Africa, while linking the journalistic strengths of traditional media to the youthful energy and global reach of social media.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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The Leapfrog Opportunity in ‘Know Your Customer’ Innovation: Why Africa Needs Local, Digitized KYC Solutions
Know Your Customer (KYC) is a critical process for banks, as it enables them to validate their customers’ identities to fulfill regulatory requirements and protect against fraud. But as Timbo Drayson at OkHi explains, KYC is a big and expensive problem in Africa: For instance, in Nigeria some banks are spending up to $1 million per year to manually verify identities, and 15-30% of customers never complete these processes. He explores three key challenges to KYC in Africa, and presents some tech-driven solutions that could allow the continent to leapfrog to a new global best practice for KYC.
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- Finance, Technology
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Resolving the Core Tension of Impact-Focused Fintech: A Viable Model for Reaching Rural Women with Digital Financial Services
Reaching last-mile communities is challenging for a business that also has to attend to its own bottom line. Claudia Sosa Lazo at IDEO.org discusses a partnership between IDEO.org, BRAC, bKash and the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics that is seeking profitable ways to bring digital financial services to rural women in Bangladesh. She explains how the partnership provides a model for other businesses and NGOs that hope to unlock both profit and social impact, while bringing beneficial products to the world’s most excluded communities.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology