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African Development Bank and AXIAN Launch Digital Finance Programme to Support 34,000 Women-led Businesses in Africa
Supported by the African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), the programme aims to address one of the biggest constraints facing women-owned businesses in Africa – limited access to finance.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: Dismissing Microfinance Won’t Help Solve Global Poverty
Microfinance isn’t a cure-all solution to poverty, but abandoning it would ignore the real evidence that responsible financial services make a positive, lasting impact on people’s lives.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Global
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The Hidden Cost of Digitization for Women Entrepreneurs: Recent Research Reveals Gender Differences in the Impacts of Fraud — And Highlights Some Solutions
Rising rates of financial fraud in emerging economies threaten to undermine the promise of digitization for women entrepreneurs. As Tanvi Jaluka at CARE and Lauren Perlik at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) explain, fraud is among the well-documented barriers women face in accessing digital financial tools and services. But there has been a lack of data on the unique risks women experience once they have already gained this access or adopted these tools. To better understand these impacts, CARE and IPA have combined their data from multiple survey projects to answer a few key questions: Is there a specific story for women around digital risk and fraud? Are they more vulnerable? And what can we do to improve their resilience?
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Africa Finance Corporation Launches Infrastructure Climate-Resilient Fund Nigeria to Mobilise Domestic Institutional Capital
Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a closed-end fund, ICRF Nigeria is designed to channel capital from pension fund administrators (PFAs), insurers, asset managers and other Nigerian institutional investors towards a diversified portfolio of commercially viable high-impact infrastructure opportunities.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Indermit Gill’s Parting Thoughts as He Exits the World Bank
Outgoing World Bank chief economist talks debt and discord, while Germany slashes development aid and low- and middle-income countries search for bankable climate solutions.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Investing, Technology, WASH
- Region
- Global
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Naran Secures $10 Million to Empower Gig Economy Drivers Across Emerging Markets
The company tackles a pervasive issue in emerging markets: gig economy workers often lack the credit history or steady, verifiable income required to secure traditional bank loans.
- Categories
- Finance, Transportation
- Region
- Global
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Report: The End of Manual Finance? AI Agents Are Coming for Startup Payments
As regional startups scale across currencies and regulations, autonomous payment systems could reduce back-office friction and improve working capital.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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IFC Supports Expansion of Financing for Kenya’s Small Businesses through the First Catalytic First Loss Guarantee Transactions in Africa
The CFLG is an innovative program delivered under IFC's $4 billion MSME Platform, enabling IFC to provide first-loss coverage to partner financial institutions by leveraging blended finance through the International Development Association's Private Sector Window (IDA PSW).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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