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Beyond RCTs: How Rapid-Fire Testing Can Build Better Financial Products
Rapid-fire tests are nimble randomized controlled trials specifically aimed at improving product design. They are already common practice among technology-based companies as a way to iterate and rapidly improve their product and expand their user-base, but they can also be used to answer questions about the demand for financial products and improve other interventions that help the world’s poor. Innovations for Poverty Action explores what these trials can and cannot do.
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Ghana Parliament Speaker overrules proposals seeking to ‘ban’ mobile money services
The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe- Adjaho has ruled to disallow a proposed amendment by the Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey –Yeboah, to the Banks and Special Deposit-taking institutions bill, currently at the consideration stage.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Perspective: 6 Traits That Make Millennials the Best Social Entrepreneurs
In The Business of Good, serial and social entrepreneur Jason Haber intertwines case studies and anecdotes that show how social entrepreneurship is creating jobs, growing the economy, and ultimately changing the world. In this edited excerpt, Haber examines the six character traits that have created a unique new generation: the Millennials.
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Mexico to Accelerate Path to Financial Inclusion
Earlier this week, Mexico launched its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), which will accelerate access to financial services for the more than half of the population currently left out of the formal and regulated financial system. 44% of adults in Mexico own a bank account.
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- Latin America
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Storming the Walls – How Mozambique’s ‘Citadel Economy’ Shapes Financial Inclusion
In Mozambique, the combination of infrastructure deficit caused by colonial neglect and civil war, a centralist political economy, the sheer scale of poverty, and limited formal sector employment opportunities creates sharp income inequalities and shapes a "citadel economy," where high walls separate those inside and outside the enclave. This keeps financial service providers from reaching excluded target markets in the informal and agrarian economy. Christine Hougaard at Cenfri explores the problem and its potential solutions.
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USAID Commits More than $38 Million to Global Entrepreneurship
At the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced four new investments totaling more than $38 million that will help mobilize the power of global entrepreneurs and innovators in the fight to end extreme poverty. These investments will connect innovators around the world with investors and capital to increase access to energy and expand food security in developing countries.
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Opportunity International and MyBucks: ‘A Powerful Partnership to Improve More Lives’
Opportunity International's sale of six microfinance banks to the fintech company MyBucks has sparked extensive analysis in recent days - along with some serious concerns. In this article, Opportunity CEO Vicki Escarra responds to the criticisms of the partnership leveled by former MFTransparency CEO Chuck Waterfield in his recent NextBillion post.
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The world’s largest investor is trying to break down the wall between you and your money
Impact investing - that is, investing with a cause in mind - is becoming increasingly popular.Millennials are twice as likely to invest in companies that have a positive impact on society, and that generation is set to invest around $40 trillion over the next three decades.
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- impact investing
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