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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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Understanding Consumer Satisfaction in Low-Income Markets: The Factors that Turn Customers into Brand Promoters – or Detractors
Many companies are addressing social needs by selling affordable food, hygiene and other products in developing countries. But as Rakib Hasan Rabbi and Patrick Guyer at Bopinc explain, in order to produce positive social and business impacts, these products must achieve a sufficient level of consumer satisfaction. They share results from consumer-level research in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, which reveal several key product attributes that can keep low-income consumers satisfied and motivate them to recommend products to others.
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- Impact Assessment
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2022
NextBillion’s “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest has concluded, and after tallying the votes, we’re excited to announce the three winners, as selected by our readers. Congratulations to the winners and their organizations! And many thanks to the other contestants, to all our guest writers from the past year – and also to the unsung heroes: the comms teams that play a key role in facilitating many of our articles.
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- Finance, Technology
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The Power of Litigation Funding: How Social Enterprises and Other Small Businesses Can Use it to Defend Their Legal Rights – And Access Capital
Social enterprises and other small businesses are often at a disadvantage when disputes arise with larger companies – particularly in the international context, where the option of going to local courts is not always available. Patrick Miller at P Miller Legal Services explores how commercial litigation funding can address this issue, by enabling these enterprises to access skilled international counsel funded by external investors who receive a proportion of any eventual award. He discusses the benefits this approach can offer to both small businesses and investors.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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In Defense of Wealth Creators: Why Globalization, Outsourcing – And Rich People – Are a Good Thing for Developed and Emerging Economies
International trade breaks down borders and provides societal and economic advancements in countries around the world. But as Derek Bullen at S.i. Systems points out, despite these benefits, there's a widespread perception that the businesses and individuals that drive this globalized, free market system only bring wealth to themselves. He argues that criticisms of globalization – and the outsourcing and wealth concentration it involves – are fundamentally flawed, and explains how wealthy individuals and their businesses benefit both affluent and emerging economies.
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- Uncategorized
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Access Alone is Not Enough: Why a Holistic Approach is Necessary to Develop Lasting Energy Solutions
With about 800 million people lacking reliable electricity, energy access is one of the defining issues – and opportunities – of our time. According to Peter Weston at Energy 4 Impact and David Nicholson at Mercy Corps, that's what drove the recent merger of their two organizations. But as they explain, to unlock the full impact of energy access, it's important to ensure that people, businesses and communities can capitalize on it. They explore how a comprehensive market system approach can produce energy solutions that work for farmers, entrepreneurs and others.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Environment
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Deconstructing the Monolith: Why Understanding Women’s Individual Needs is Key to Closing the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion
How can financial service providers tailor their products to boost women's financial inclusion? Scott Graham and Anahit Tevosyan at FINCA discuss the findings of a survey of 2,800 financial consumers in the DRC, which showed – perhaps counterintuitively – that focusing on gender as the defining characteristic of a female client is exactly the wrong approach. They explore why it's necessary to “deconstruct the monolith” of female clients by digging into sub-segments of the market to understand their specific needs and constraints.
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- Finance
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NextBillion’s 2022 Reader and Guest Writer Survey: Share Your Views and Help Shape Our Coverage
As an open forum for the development through enterprise sector, almost all of NextBillion's content is guest written. That's why it's important for us to check in periodically with our writers and readers, to get a better sense of how well our coverage is suiting your needs – and what we could do better. To that end, we've put together a brief, six-question survey, and we invite both writers and readers to share your views. Your input will be highly valuable as we work to highlight the businesses, innovations, debates and leaders that are shaping the sector.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH