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The Philippines’ Voyager Innovations raises $175m from KKR and Tencent
In total, the company now has raised $215 million in funding since Voyager Innovations also secured $40 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC) and IFC Emerging Asia Fund last week.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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WhatsApp Chief Seeks Reserve Bank of India Approval to Expand Payment Services to All Indian Users
WhatsApp Chief has written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking a formal nod to expand payments services to all its 200 million users in India.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile money service now works with China’s WeChat Pay
Tens of millions of people using Kenya’s dominant mobile money service M-Pesa will now be able to transfer cash to over a billion active users of China’s digital payment system WeChat Pay.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Boycott Myanmar: An Open Letter to the Microfinance Community
In response to global events, microfinance has quickly ramped up its focus on refugees. But when those refugees are the Rohingya – the Muslim minority being expelled from Myanmar (and the world’s latest victims of genocide) – this new focus raises some difficult questions, says Daniel Rozas. Why isn’t anyone in the sector talking about the unspeakable atrocities being conducted and condoned in one of the fastest-growing microfinance markets in the world? “There is no way around it: When we work in Myanmar, we are complicit in ethnic cleansing,” Rozas says, in a bold call for a country-wide boycott.
- Categories
- Finance
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South Sudan okays plan to expand mobile money services
Most people in South Sudan’s capital have been relying on small unlicensed mobile operators to transfer money enabled by the platform created by MTN Uganda and Kenya’s M-Pesa platforms.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: IFAAS and Mercy Corps join hands to promote financial inclusion in Ethiopia
Ethiopia counts around 34% Muslims amongst its near 100 million population, second largest in Africa. However, according to the World Bank Statistics in 2017, only 35% of the population have an account with a regulated financial institution, a rate that is significantly below the global average (it is estimated to be much lower among the Ethiopian Muslims).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bank of Ghana Begins Overhaul of Microfinance, Rural Banks
Even as public attention remains focused on the fate of Ghana’s universal banking industry, with only a month left to the dead line for recapitalization to a minimum of GHc400 million, the Bank of Ghana is now commencing with its plans to overhaul the country’s micro-finance and rural banking industries.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Do Payday Loans Deserve Their Bad Reputation? Ask the People Who Know Best – the Borrowers
Payday loans have earned a bad reputation as high-interest money traps that leave low-income borrowers stuck in a cycle of debt. But despite all the criticism and bad press, these loans remain very popular among low-income borrowers, with an estimated 15,766 payday loan stores throughout the U.S. – slightly more than the country's 14,350 McDonalds. So are payday loans really that bad – and are borrowers actually being victimized? LendEDU conducted a survey of payday loan customers, and Mike Brown unpacks the results – many of which may surprise you.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- financial health, lending
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