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Financial Inclusion Week: Reflection and Action from Three Leading Voices
Today, the Center for Financial Inclusion is wrapping up Financial Inclusion Week. The intention for the week was to ask some soul-searching questions about what it means to be inclusive – and about how financial access in the age of fintech can impact the lives of millions, for good or ill. We caught up with three leading voices in the field, asking each of them three key questions focused on what financial inclusion means to them from a personal, organizational and international standpoint.
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- Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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On the Ground at SOCAP19: Live Interviews and Insights from the Social Impact Sector’s Flagship Event
NextBillion’s editors are on the ground at SOCAP19, live-tweeting from panels, conducting live interviews, and providing coverage of key conversations and innovators. We’ll be updating this blog regularly from Wednesday to Friday. Also, we’ll be broadcasting live Q&As with thought leaders in social impact from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PST on Wednesday, and 2:00 – 3:00 pm PST on Thursday. You can view them live at NextBillion’s Facebook page, and we’ll embed the videos here after they’re over.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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A New How-To Guide Chronicles Food and Water Innovators
It's challenging enough to start a business in mature markets, but just try running one in a rural community in a developing country with poor roads and customers who can't pay you. “Innovator Guidebook: Navigating Business Models for the Base of the Pyramid in Water and Energy for Food," highlights lessons from innovators funded by the five-year Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge. The online resource was unveiled today at SOCAP.
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- Agriculture, Education, Energy, Technology
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Announcing the New(ish) NextBillion: How – and Why – We’ve Updated the Site
NextBillion is announcing several small but important changes to our site's design and content, aimed at making the platform more intuitive for readers to navigate – and easier for guest writers, potential partners and others to utilize. We explain the changes, and the reasoning behind them, in this article.
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- Social Enterprise
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Inclusive Fintech in Practice: Chipper Cash Illustrates Three Keys to Tackling Cross-Border Payments in Africa
Though the mobile money revolution has reshaped East Africa, only around 8% of the region's residents actively send or receive payments across borders. Akansha Kasera at BFA’s Catalyst Fund discusses how Chipper Cash is addressing the need for cross-border transactions through a simple, affordable payments platform. She breaks down what's driving the platform's rapid growth – and what other providers can learn from it.
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- Uncategorized
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It’s That Time Again – Here’s Your Official SOCAP19 Conference Preview
October is in full swing, and that means it’s time for SOCAP – the 12th annual gathering of investors, entrepreneurs and others helping to drive mission-focused business. It all happens next week, when SOCAP19 will host over 500 speakers and hold more than 150 breakout sessions at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco. Team NextBillion will be there too - here's what to expect.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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A Devil’s Bargain to Bank the Unbanked: Why Financial Inclusion Advocates Shouldn’t Trust Facebook’s Libra
As you've likely heard, Facebook has entered the inclusive finance arena, pitching Libra, a global cryptocurrency – ostensibly to promote financial inclusion. But as Digital Equity co-founder Valerie Khan argues, there are plenty of reasons to doubt Facebook's intentions and Libra's “social good” marketing campaign. In fact, she says, "Facebook is not being transparent about its real interest in Libra" – and both financial inclusion advocates and emerging countries should beware.
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- Finance, Technology
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Making Technical Assistance Work in Africa: Three Keys to Success for Financial Services Providers
It’s not easy delivering data-driven financial services to financially excluded customers in Africa. That’s why technical assistance can be essential to these financial service providers' success. Dumisani Dube at Insight2Impact (i2i) explores the technical assistance programs that i2i provided to seven financial service providers across the continent, and shares what worked – and what didn't.
- Categories
- Finance
