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Mobile Money Growth Slows at Last in Ghana
After seven years of phenomenal growth as a payments platform in Ghana, the increase in mobile money (MoMo) users and usage has begun to slow giving indications that this transformational payment platform, in its current form, may be approaching maturity.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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NGOs Ordered to Retract Report Critical of Microfinance in Cambodia
Government officials and MFIs were quick to dismiss the report, noting that interviews were only conducted in 10 communes in the provinces of Kandal, Kampong Cham, Tboung Khmum, Prey Veng and the city of Phnom Penh.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- microfinance, NGOs
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The Missing Piece of the Fintech Puzzle: How Local, Informal Networks Play a Crucial Role in Remittances
The spread of fintech is bringing millions of emerging markets customers – and their relations – into the realm of formal finance. But though they're powered by futuristic technologies, fintech initiatives are often built on complex community networks and informal methods of transacting that have existed for centuries. Researchers Daivi Rodima Taylor and Bill Maurer explore the implications of these roles, relationships and social intermediaries for financial service design.
- Categories
- Finance
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Accion Venture Lab Launches $23m Inclusive Fintech Startup Fund
The Accion Venture Lab Limited Partnership, as it’s called, will make seed-stage investments in inclusive fintech startups, defined as ventures that “that leverage technology to increase the reach, quality, and affordability of financial services for the under-served at scale,” per a company release.
- Categories
- Finance
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Viewpoint: Libra’s Top-Down Model Doesn’t Match Its Financial Inclusion Mission
Though the use of Libra to pay for a Spotify subscription, an outfit on Farfetch, or a holiday on Booking.com is certainly an on-ramp for mainstream adoption, the appeal and necessity of such services to the underbanked, as part of the currency’s underlying mission, is mismatched.
- Categories
- Finance
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India’s Mobile Payments Firm MobiKwik Reaches Rare Key Profit Milestone
The 10-year-old Gurgaon-headquartered firm said Tuesday it is now generating a profit excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Who Owns Poverty?: A Q&A with Fundación Paraguaya Founder and CEO Martin Burt
Why do so many anti-poverty efforts fail? And what should we do differently? In his new book, "Who Owns Poverty," Fundación Paraguaya founder and CEO Martin Burt explores those questions from the viewpoint of the real experts: poor families themselves. He presents some key insights from the book in this Q&A – and the book is available to NextBillion readers at a discount (or as a free e-book)!
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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M-Pesa Mulls Joining Nigeria’s Mobile Money Market
Safaricom, a major player in the East African Telco market and mobile money operator, will be considering its prospects in the West African zone with Nigeria as the key driver.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa