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Mobile industry to add $150b to Africa’s economy by 2022, as subscribers rise
GSMA is pegging the rise to the growing number of mobile subscriptions, which it expects to hit 634 million — equivalent to 52 per cent of the population — by 2025, from 44 per cent as at the end of 2017.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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M-Pesa Loses Ground on Person-to-Person Money Transfers
According to the latest report by Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that M-Pesa still commands a large market share compared to the competition with a whopping 23.6 million subscribers up against 3.3 million on Airtel money and 1.9 million on Equitel.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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UN pushes for cross-border mobile money payments
The move is intended to facilitate interconnectivity between registered mobile money account owners within Kenya and across the continent, totaling 277 million according to a 2017 report.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Tanzania considers pushing telcos to refund mobile money fraud victims
The minister responsible for communications, Mr Isack Kamwelwe told The Citizen newspaper that the government has received numerous complaints from the public against telcos, citing failure to take stringent measures against the theft.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Step by Step Credit: Empowering the Unbanked through Progressive Finance
Despite notable progress in the financial inclusion sector, widespread, permanent change remains elusive. The good news, says Aristotle Socrates at Juvo, is that not only is this change possible, but everything we need to make it happen already exists. In fact, it might be as easy as setting aside long-held assumptions about the role of wealth and income in establishing credit. He outlines how improved data infrastructure is connecting lenders to creditworthy customers, producing big gains for both providers and the financially excluded in the developing world.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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Cutting Edge Agriculture: How Artificial Intelligence, Satellites and Big Data are Transforming Farmers’ Access to Finance
There are many reasons for the $450 billion global agricultural finance gap. But much of the challenge stems from lenders' inability to monitor farmers' output, estimate their income and assess their risk of default, says Ruchit G Garg of Harvesting Inc. He explores how artificial intelligence and satellites are addressing that data imbalance, helping lenders reach many of the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers for the first time.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology, Telecommunications
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Failure to Thrive: Nigeria’s Digital Financial Services Industry is Struggling – Can These Policy Solutions Help?
Nigeria leads all other emerging economies with 21 licensed mobile money operators. But high levels of unbanked and underbanked citizens have led to poor adoption rates for digital financial services. The Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) initiative of the Lagos Business School has been studying ways to improve customer access and product development. In recently published research, Olayinka David-West and Ubukun Taiwo, both of LBS, reveal six policy recommendations for regulators that could help DFS to thrive in Nigeria.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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What was the Most Influential NextBillion Post of 2017? Vote for Your Favorite
“Fast away the old year passes.” That lyric from “Deck the Halls” always hits home this time of year – and in 2017, it resonates particularly strongly. Across the social sectors, the year often felt like a race against time (or against competing societal forces) and many of our most popular posts reflect that sense of urgency. Here are the most influential posts from the last twelve months, one from each month, in our sixth annual holiday contest. Vote early, vote often.
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