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National Payments Corporation of India begins pilot project to digitize transactions in microfinance sector
Under the project, RBL Bank will disburse loans and HDFC Bank will receive loan repayments for the transactions of Svatantra Microfinance using Aadhaar and USSD based facilities.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Social Business Roundup: A $1 Smartphone, the Upshot of Disparity and the Quizzing of Presidents
If you manufacture a phone that comes with apps advertising to low-income consumers, can you sell it for as little as $1? The folks at SocialEco think so. Other items NextBillion's editors came across for this week's Roundup included a concentration on wealth concentration, an unhappy birthday for M-Pesa, plus a presidential Q that will hopefully result in an A.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Working With the Underbanked in the Age of Trump
Last fall, executives at Bee, a mobile financial services company, were having fruitful conversations about working together with municipal agencies and other organizations serving immigrants, people of color and low-wage workers.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North America
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Somalia Is a Leader in Mobile Money But Still Wants to Print Its First Cash Notes in 25 Years
The collapse of the Somali government in 1991 saw the rise of unique political, economic and social outfits, all clambering to fill the void of government institutions. One of them was the emergence of a nonconforming monetary system, controlled by warlords and rogue businessmen, who contracted foreign printers and imported counterfeit money. This left the Somali economy in shambles, largely dependent on dollars for trade, and effectively created a freewheeling “economy without state.”
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Brazil’s Creditas Gets $19 Million Amid Boom in Local Fintech Financing
Creditas Soluções Financeiras Ltda, a Brazilian financial technology firm focused on secured consumer loans, has obtained $19 million from investors in a financing round that will allow it to provide borrowers with funds for one-fourth of what they pay to domestic lenders.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Bharat Financial begins Aadhaar-based cashless loan disbursal in India
In a first of its kind move in the micro-finance and financial-inclusion space, Bharat Financial Inclusion on Wednesday launched Aadhaar-based instant and cashless loan disbursal. It took less than seven minutes for 30-year-old Guddi Devi to apply and receive ₹29,565 loan for a new grocery shop she intends to set up.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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M-Pesa: Kenya’s mobile money success story turns 10
Smartphone payments are gaining ground in the US, but mobile money is old news in Kenya. The majority of the East African country's population is subscribed to a mobile payment service, and the most popular choice is M-Pesa, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in March 2017. M-Pesa -- "pesa" means "money" in Swahili -- has made a dramatic impact over this time.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Grameen America, Citi and Mastercard Collaborate on Financial Inclusion for Female Entrepreneurs
Grameen America, a leading nonprofit microfinance organization, today announced a collaboration with Citi and Mastercard to introduce a number of financial technology solutions that will greatly enhance the organization’s ability to promote digital financial access and inclusion for more than 86,000 low-income minority women entrepreneurs across the United States.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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