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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.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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KYC is a Journey, Not a Destination: The Value of Know-Your-Customer Innovation for African Tech Startups
Identity theft is increasingly common in Africa, and the problem is likely to get worse. According to Lanre Ogungbe at Identitypass, digital access is expanding rapidly on the continent, and tech startups are under pressure to create frictionless signup processes for new users, which sometimes comes at the expense of better security. He argues that this has created an urgent need for better Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, and explores why tech startups should view KYC not as a regulatory obligation, but rather as an opportunity for innovation that can improve their products, protect their customers and increase their business success.
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- Finance, Technology
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2022: Vote for Your Favorite!
It's time for NextBillion's “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest, in which we select our 12 most-read articles from the past year and invite readers to choose their favorites. We welcome you to read the articles and to vote by scrolling down to the voting app at the bottom of this announcement — or at the individual articles in the contest, which are linked in this announcement and posted on our homepage. You can vote up to one time per hour during the voting period, which will run from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3. We wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!
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- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Environment, Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Fewer ‘Heropreneurs,’ More Heroic Women: Grameen Foundation’s New CEO Discusses Her Vision for the Organization – And the Broader Financial Inclusion Sector
When Zubaida Bai was announced as the new CEO of Grameen Foundation last month, she says the news was often met with two reactions: “Wow, is Muhammed Yunus your hero, too?” and “Oh, Grameen Foundation — they do microfinance, right?” As Bai writes, these reactions highlighted some common misunderstandings about Yunus and Grameen Foundation — and about the real heroes behind anti-poverty work. She explores these misconceptions, and shares her vision for Grameen Foundation and the financial inclusion sector.
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- Finance, Social Enterprise
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From Grameen Bank to Global Scale: The New Edition of a Classic Book Highlights the Hard Truth – And Enduring Value – Behind Microfinance
In 1996, Grameen Foundation founder Alex Counts published “Small Loans, Big Dreams,” a well-regarded account of the origins and early years of the microfinance sector. Counts recently published a new edition of the book, which reflects on the ongoing evolution of the industry, and responds to critics who have questioned its role in international development. Longtime microfinance leader and analyst Elisabeth Rhyne discusses the book, and explores what these new updates tell us about the current state of the global microfinance sector.
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- Finance
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Access, Understanding and Trust: Breaking Down the Barriers to Women’s Participation in India’s Digital Finance Revolution
The digital gender divide has long occupied international development headlines, as gaps remain between men and women in both access to and usage of digital technologies in many emerging economies. According to Anant Nyshadham at Good Business Lab, Shalin Gor and Divya Nair, and Emily Coppel at IDinsight, India is no exception. They explore the three types of obstacles that are preventing Indian women from participating in digital financial services, and share some implications for providers of these services.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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The Power of Trust in Digital Finance: How to Leverage Trusted Technology to Maximize Inclusion and Impact
Trust can be a significant barrier to engagement in digital financial services among low-income users. According to William Derban at Opportunity International, that means providers must often take measures to address this trust deficit when developing digital services that target these customers — particularly women. He discusses Opportunity International's new Trusted Tech Microfinance Initiative, and shares six ways the initiative is working to build clients’ trust in the technologies Opportunity and its microfinance partners are using.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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A Hidden Driver of Financial Inclusion: Why Enabling Regulation is Essential to Fintech Success in Emerging Markets
Fintech innovation is jumpstarting financial inclusion around the world, driven in part by enabling regulation which allows providers to experiment with new approaches. But as Monica Brand Engel, Ganesh Rengaswamy and Jonathan Whittle at Quona Capital explain, it can be difficult for regulators to simultaneously fuel innovation, adapt to new technologies and government mandates, and protect customers. They explore what the fintech sector can learn from successful regulatory approaches in countries like Brazil and India.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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