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Lessons Learned Using Mobile Tools to Compile Financial Diary Data
Financial diary methodology is a powerful tool for studying financial inclusion, especially if digital tools are used. Using a mobile data collection and analysis app (which also worked offline) and a cloud-hosted database, Catholic Relief Services drew household data from rural areas in real time and amassed thousands of data points generated by tracking people’s financial lives each week.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Tags
- data, financial inclusion, fintech, research
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Press Release: Ten American Inventors Named Finalists in First Global Competition for Hardware with a Social Purpose
Ten social-minded American inventors will present their design prototypes in Washington, D.C. on June 22. They are among 28 finalists selected from more than 150 submissions from South Asia, Africa and the United States. Three grand prize winners have already been named in both Bangalore on April 27 and Nairobi on May 25.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North America
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Naspers pours $5M into Coins, a fintech startup for Southeast Asia’s unbanked population
Coins is focused on offering financial services for the unbanked in the Philippines and Thailand. It uses the blockchain as its underlying technology to facilitate transfers and remittances. It announced the new funding — which comes via the Naspers Ventures division — as an extension to the $5 million Series A round that it closed last October.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Mobile money flourishing in Myanmar
Young migrant workers throughout the country use mobile money to make remittances to families back home. In Myanmar, only 20% of the population has a bank account. Thus, unbanked people often just carry stacks of cash when returning home.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- remittances
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Bank cards show resilience in Kenya despite mobile money dominance
Mobile money has for the last years stifled the growth of plastic money, with many pointing to the death of the cards but new data from Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) showed Wednesday that the latter is in Kenya to stay, the onslaught notwithstanding.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why Alternative Lending Struggles to Scale in Emerging Markets – And What Fintech Companies Can Do About It
Fintech models have proliferated in most developing countries, but alternative lending has struggled to gain scale. That's why FIBR, a project by consulting firm BFA in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, is bringing together fintechs and banks to use networks of small businesses – shops, clinics and even local schools – to deliver digital financial services to low-income customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Philips India unveils ‘Affordable technological solutions’ on wheels
Recognizing the need of healthcare solutions for patients in Gujarat, the program is designed to meet the customers across cities and visit them with Philips products and solutions. The special vehicle showcasing state-of-the-art technologies from Philips Healthcare, will travel across key cities in Gujarat for the next 30 days, before moving on to Rajasthan and other parts of India.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Five countries to watch for e-payments
A study shows that 34% of Europeans and 38% of Americans would be willing to go cash-free if they could, Reuters reported. In Asia, China is an early adopter of digital payments, with 95% of Chinese using smartphones and mobile wallets to pay for goods and services.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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