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The Hard Facts on ‘Soft Data’: Determining risk for loan applicants without credit scores is more than a numbers game
Research has shown that judging creditworthiness based on a single number can shortchange lenders as well as borrowers, and that a more comprehensive picture based on “soft information” as well as numbers can serve as a firmer basis for judging risk of default. This is good news for small borrowers – and it represents a promising new direction for those seeking to lend to them.
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Microfinance Clients Make Their Voices Heard: New research reveals their thoughts on how they’re treated by providers
The Smart Campaign has released the results from its Client Voices project, a four-country research investigation that directly asked clients about their experiences with financial providers and their thoughts on what constitutes good and bad treatment. The project features research from Georgia, Peru, Benin and Pakistan, based on face-to-face conversations with thousands of lower-income microfinance clients.
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Bengaluru Is Achieving What Many Regions Could Not: Stanford Business School Dean
Stanford university’s Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) counts numerous Silicon Valley entrepreneurs among its alumni, including Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla. In 2013, Stanford GSB launched its Ignite programme for entrepreneurs and innovators, with Infosys’s Bengaluru campus acting as the host facility. Its Dean Garth Saloner was in India recently to explore the possibility of finding a facility host for The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (Stanford Seed). Saloner spoke to Forbes India about the importance of the entrepreneurial process and why Bengaluru has managed to create an enviable startup ecosystem.
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- Region
- South Asia
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Framework Unveiled to Raise Financial Literacy
A national financial education framework has been launched to address money literacy and consumer protection challenges.
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- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Indian Government’s Financial Inclusion Dream Still Unrealized
"Never before in economic history would 15 million bank accounts have been opened on a single day. Never before has the Government of India organised a programme of such scale," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on August 28, 2014, launching the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (Prime Minister's People's Wealth Programme/PMJDY).
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- Region
- South Asia
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Social Enterprise Ghana Launches First Industry Group
Social Entrepreneurs Ghana (SE Ghana) is being launched by a number of social entrepreneurs and organizations including Reach for Change, the British Council, Impact Hub, Growth Mosaic, TEDxAccra, mPedigree, TANOE, Street Library, Challenging Heights, Ashesi University, AACT, Nneka Foundation, Farmable, CRESSENT, InnoHuB, phinklife, Kokroko foundation, GEW and Center for Social Innovation.
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- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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About 70% of Ghana’s ‘Susu’ Collectors Are Operating Illegally
Out of an estimated 1,500 Susu collectors operating in the country, with a client base of over 2 million, only 472 of them (representing 31 percent) are formally licenced under the self-regulation scheme, making t activities of the rest illegal.
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- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- lending, microfinance
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Rapid Growth = Equitable Access? Is Ivory Coast’s financial sector expanding enough to reach full inclusion?
Ivory Coast’s financial sector is expanding, but is that enough to reach full financial inclusion? How is the microfinance sector faring in the clean-up process that the government started a few years ago? And how is the rapid expansion of mobile money impacting the overall financial access picture? MIX is launching an updated version of their Ivory Coast workbook release, which explores these key questions.
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