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‘Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Development’: European Microfinance Week Nov. 18th – 20th
European Microfinance Week is a major annual event featuring high level, in-depth discussions by all sectors of the European microfinance community. The conference, which will take place Nov. 18th – 20th in Luxembourg, will welcome over 400 top professionals in the industry, from several dozen countries. NextBillion will be a media partner at the event, providing live tweeting, blog coverage and interviews with key participants.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment, Technology
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New Financial Inclusion Innovation in Colombia: Government approves electronic deposits through non-bank entities
Colombia has included financial inclusion as a priority in its national agenda since a very early stage. Last fall, the Colombian Congress took the latest step, passing a law creating a new type of financial institution called Specialized Electronic Deposit and Payment Institutions. The Alliance for Financial Inclusion spoke with a Colombian regulator about the new law.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Better Loans for Better Housing: How Housing Microfinance and Strategic Value Chains Can Help Alleviate the Low-Income Housing Deficit
The majority of the world’s population lives in cities, and much of our future population growth is projected to occur in cities in the developing world. But in spite of the demand, the BoP housing market has been largely handicapped by informality and undeveloped channels for financing and technical assistance. Gary Carrier explores a number of market-based solutions.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- housing, lending, microfinance
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NexThought Monday – The Affordable Housing Puzzle: Three pilot projects in India aim to assemble the pieces –customers, financing and scale
Can the low-cost or affordable housing segment business in fact be profitable, and more importantly, scalable? asks housing developer and researcher Dhaval Monani. He points to new pilot projects that show promise in delivering safe, very low-cost homes that come with a profit for developers.
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Failure to Launch: Why Mobile Money Hasn’t Taken off in Nigeria – And How the Sector Can Turn Things Around
In contrast to other African countries, Nigeria’s digital finance sector has yet to take off, with one survey finding that just 0.01 percent of Nigerians have a mobile money account. Critics suggest the lack of progress is due to banks rather than telecoms leading the charge. But research from the Helix Institute of Digital Finance suggests that other factors may be responsible - and points toward some solutions.
- Categories
- Education, Finance, Technology
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Social Impact Bonds in Latin America: Reframing Social Development in the Region
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, in March launched a $5.3 million fund to test a new social sector financing tool: Social Impact Bonds. This fund is a window to a promising new approach to social development in Latin America. SIBs hope to improve the effectiveness of social programs through an alignment of incentives and a powerful multi-sector partnership.
- Categories
- Finance
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Putting Microbusiness on the Map: U.S. students survey local businesses to compete for social enterprise seed funding
In the U.S., 3.7 million people remain long-term unemployed. Without job opportunities, many Americans are becoming entrepreneurial out of necessity - but they often lack capital. That’s why Lend for America is working with local students in the Philadelphia area to provide microfinance for social entrepreneurship.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Best Practices in Mobile Finance: Four fundamental service features that can have a positive impact on people’s lives
There is a growing amount of evidence on how best to provide financial services to the poor. The Gates Foundation’s Jake Kendall and Rodger Voorhies highlight some emerging trends from the research that they think constitute “best practices” for the field.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications