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NexThought Monday – Everybody Loves M-Shwari: So why isn’t everybody using the mobile banking service?
M-Shwari, a mobile service that offers access to formal credit and savings in Kenya, has received tremendous attention from the media, as well as praise from digital financial services advocates. But has this attention led to strong consumer awareness, and if so, has that awareness translated to improved financial access? InterMedia shares the results of their long-term evaluation.
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Twitter Sunday
Ah spring (at least in this hemisphere). The snow has melted, the buds are starting to open and the birds are chirping. So are the Twitter birds, of course. Here are a few good eggs from the week that we’ve gathered into our nest.
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Weekly Roundup – 6 Mobile Finance Innovations (That Have Nothing to Do With Apple): While the U.S. obsesses over the latest gadget, mobile finance accelerates around the world
Lately, the digital payments conversation in the U.S. seems to revolve around whatever Apple is doing. But while we discuss the latest gadget, mobile finance innovation is exploding in countries around the world. We highlight six intriguing recent developments affecting countries from China to Kenya in this roundup.
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Ideas Wanted – Mobile Money for Millions: BRAC’s Innovation Fund for Mobile Money 2015 Challenge opens
Mobile money has huge potential for changing the lives of the poor, as everyone from Bill Gates to World Bank president Jim Yong Kim have proclaimed. BRAC is looking for bold mobile money ideas that can be tested and then taken to scale. Its Innovation Fund for Mobile Money 2015 Challenge is accepting submissions, with a deadline of April 16. Winning ideas will be piloted in Bangladesh.
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- Technology
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Nextbillion’s Most Viewed, Shared Posts in February: Failure, Glorious Failure
The old adage that it’s not news if everything goes according to plan – that applies to blog sites like ours, too. And so, as per usual, stories about failure led the list of our most-viewed and most-shared posts of February. But there was no reveling in schadenfreude here. Rather, we opened the month with a series on what we could learn from failures, brought to us by a burgeoning global organization that has failure right in its name.
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Affecting the Girl Effect: Inspired by TOMS and Warby Parker, SHEVA aims at empowerment
SHEVA has applied the buy-one-give-one business model to feminine hygiene products with the goal of educating and empowering women and girls.
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- Education, Environment, Health Care
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Reaching ‘an Emerging Market Within an Emerging Market’: JPMorgan Chase and Omidyar back new impact fund aimed at Brazil’s middle class
Entrepreneurs who can deliver high-quality basic services on the cheap are rushing to meet the pent-up demands of Brazil’s 112 million lower- and middle-class consumers. Those entrepreneurs can tap a new source of capital: impact investors - including one backed by JPMorgan Chase and the Omidyar Network - focused on the huge population of Brazilians who make under $10,000 a year.
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- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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3 Reasons India May Be The Next Digital Finance Hotspot: Mondato explores the potential of a rapidly shifting market
Finding the right incentives for merchants to accept digital and mobile payments is a task that many have attempted and few have achieved. But according to Mondato, after flying under the mobile finance radar for a long time, India could be the country that does it. Chris Connolly highlights three ingredients that could make India the next digital finance hotspot.
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- Technology
