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Press release: Impact Terra secures nearly USD 3.0 million to digitize smallholder farming
Impact Terra, the Myanmar based agriculture and fintech social enterprise, today announced that it has secured nearly USD 3.0 million in funding to lead the digitization of smallholder farming. Its support includes a grant from the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (‘G4AW’) facility and a grant from venture philanthropy organization Leap201.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Egypt on the Precipice: Can Fintech Pave the Way for a More Inclusive Financial System?
Financial inclusion in Egypt has persistently lagged behind similar economies for decades. But the country now has all the hallmarks of a market ready to leapfrog: a young population, an enthusiastic embrace of social media, and more mobile subscriptions (110 million) than its population. Sarah Willis of MetLife Foundation and Mayada El-Zoghbi of CGAP lay out four criteria that Egypt must meet to bring meaningful financial services to its low-income communities.
- Categories
- Finance
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IDFC Foundation partners Vasudhara Dairy to bring Financial Inclusion to over 1000 villages
IDFC Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of IDFC Group, has partnered Vasudhara Dairy, to bring financial inclusion to over 1000 unbanked villages in the tribal districts of Gujarat and Maharashtra, using Financial Inclusion Devices or interoperable microATMs. This initiative will enable thousands of farmers to now access financial services in their villages. Farmers in these unbanked locations are compelled to travel 5-10 kilometers to reach a traditional ATM or bank branch.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Telenor Group and Ant Financial in strategic partnership to deliver inclusive financial services in Pakistan
Telenor Group has reached a strategic partnership agreement with Ant Financial Services Group ("Ant Financial") in Pakistan, where Ant Financial will invest USD 184.5m for a 45% stake in Telenor Microfinance Bank ("TMB"), a subsidiary of Telenor Group, to further develop TMB's mobile payment and digital financial services.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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How Incorporating Behavioral Science into Cash Transfer Programs Is Changing Lives
More than $200 million in direct cash payments is distributed daily to fight poverty in over 120 developing countries. Evidence shows that the programs are working – but there is new pressure on them to enhance their effectiveness. Josh Martin and Laura Rawlings discuss how ideas42 and the World Bank, with funding from the Global Innovation Initiative, are leveraging behavioral science to help families make the most effective use of cash payments to achieve their goals.
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- Finance, Technology
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Gap Inc. Sets New Goal For Apparel Suppliers To Pay Garment Workers Digitally By 2020
More than 60 percent of Gap Inc.’s supplier factories already provide digital payments methods, such as online transfers to bank accounts or mobile wallets. The new goal will help scale this progress across the company’s global supply chain and positively impact the lives of more than one million garment workers.
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- Finance
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Ghanaians to make int’l payments with mobile money as MTN partners Google
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana Ebenezer Asante has revealed that subscribers of MTN mobile money can now pay for any transaction across the world through the Google platform.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Tortoise and the Hare: India and China Put Different Paths to Digital Finance to the Test
In 2016, some US$18 trillion changed hands via non-bank digital payment transactions in China – a value larger than its GDP. Meanwhile, though its population is roughly the same, India's digital finance industry has lagged far behind. But thanks to new digital infrastructure and evolving regulations, this situation is changing fast. Like the tortoise in Aesop’s fable, will India catch up with China, which has bounded ahead at hare-like speed? David Porteous at the Digital Frontiers Institute explores the two countries' approaches and their implications for other emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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