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How Your Social Media Reputation Could Secure You a Loan
Traditional banking in Africa has failed - 80% of the continent's 1.2 billion people do not have a bank account or access to formal financial services. So mobiles and web-based services are stepping in to fill the gap. But there is much more to Africa's financial services story than M-Pesa, the wildly successful mobile banking platform launched in Kenya and Tanzania in 2007.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- credit scoring
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Nigerian Regulator Restores WorldRemit, 10 Other Money Transfer Operators
The Central Bank of Nigeria has given new operating licenses to 11 International Money Transfer (IMTOs) service providers, in efforts to open up the market and make foreign exchange readily available to the nation’s low income earners.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bank Fight Telcos Over Mobile Money Dominance in Ghana
The Central Bank announced a new set of guidelines for the service about a year ago to improve money transfer via mobile phones. The new regulatory regime among others empowered telecom companies to also own and run the electronic money business like banks. However, it appears the banks are rather concerned about the threat posed by mobile money services.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mark Zuckerberg has made a surprise visit to Nairobi to learn about mobile money
On his surprise tour of tech hubs in Africa, Mark Zuckerberg has made a pit stop in Nairobi. Announcing his arrival on Facebook, he described talking with entrepreneurs working out of the tech space, the iHub, and dining on ugali and tilapia with Kenya’s cabinet secretary of information and communications.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Today’s SpaceX explosion is a major setback for Facebook’s free internet ambitions
This morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad, completely destroying the rocket and its payload two days before the scheduled launch. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but anyone counting on this weekend’s launch to deliver equipment into orbit is now left scrambling for a replacement.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Interest Payment on Mobile Money Wallets to Begin on Sept. 11 in Ghana
Mobile telecom operators with mobile money service have clinched a deal with their partner banks for them to pay interest on customers’ balances in their wallets.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Three Keys to Scaling Technology in Africa
Based on the success of Mama Rescue, a cloud-based transport voucher and emergency dispatch system for mothers in rural Uganda, UNICEF and the Ugandan Ministry of Health decided that the platform should be scaled up to the entire country. Here are three key lessons they've learned for successfully scaling technology.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Bank of Ghana to Make Mobile Money Platforms Interoperable
The Bank of Ghana has initiated a project to implement a mobile money payment infrastructure that will enable the seamless transfer of funds from one network provider to another (interoperability).
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- cash transfers, fintech
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