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Mastercard and Banco Sol Strengthen Collaboration to Drive SME Growth in Angola
This collaboration strategically leverages Mastercard's dedication to fostering financial inclusion through innovative payment solutions and Banco Sol's commitment to strengthening small businesses in underserved communities.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Moving Forward in a Post-USAID World: Why Women Must Be at the Center of Financial Inclusion
The demise of USAID has profound implications for the movement toward gender equality in financial inclusion and other development priorities. According to Julia Arnold and Sara Seavey, consultants specializing in women’s financial inclusion, the agency played a central role in funding, researching and coordinating global gender equality work — and without that anchor, these efforts are at risk of fragmentation and regression. They argue that this moment places responsibility on the sector itself to preserve the values, evidence and accountability structures that made progress toward gender-inclusive finance possible.
- Categories
- Finance
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UBS Optimus Foundation and Co-Funders Commit USD $29 Million to Chancen International’s Future of Work Fund, Scaling Student Financing in Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa
To date, Chancen has funded over 9,000 students, and the Future of Work Fund will provide funding for a total of 15,000 young people – with the growing number of investors providing opportunities to help thousands more.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ebola and Hantavirus Have Africa Talking ‘Health Sovereignty’ as Donor Support Fades
African leaders for years had pledged to better finance their own health systems, but commitments remained on paper.
- Categories
- Finance, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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British International Investment Partners with Ecobank DRC to Expand Sustainable Financing for SMEs in the DRC
The facility will target sectors critical to the country’s economic development, job creation and more resilient supply chains in the real economy, including agriculture and agro‑processing, industrial, infrastructure, climate‑aligned projects and renewable energy, as well as local entrepreneurship.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ecobank, Proparco Partner to Mobilise €300 Million for Agriculture, Women-Led Businesses in Africa
Under the arrangement, Proparco Groupe AFD will provide financial instruments, including partial portfolio guarantees, co-financing, and trade finance support, to help Ecobank Group increase lending to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises across 33 African countries.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mastercard and Yellow Card Partner to Unlock Stablecoin Payment Innovation Across EEMEA
The two companies will explore innovative real-world use cases for stablecoin-enabled payments including strengthening digital asset payment security with Mastercard Crypto Credential.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Turning Silos into Synergy: An Inclusive Finance Pilot Provides Lessons for Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration
Silos and fragmentation have slowed progress in inclusive finance for too long, as the efforts of private actors, public institutions, philanthropic funders and other stakeholders are often not intentionally aligned. As Seth Spiro at FINCA and Moustapha Seck at FLUID argue, one reason for this lack of alignment is that many of the systems underpinning inclusive finance were not built for multi-stakeholder collaboration. They explore solutions to these structural constraints, explaining how FINCA’s partnership with FLUID has aligned incentives, learning and execution to overcome organizational silos.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Investing
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