-
Bringing MFS Providers Under a Platform Remains a Challenge in Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Bank move to integrate a total of seven business entities including four commercial banks into Mobile Financial Services platform poses challenge.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Impact Hub Launches Entrepreneur Fellowship in Africa
Impact Hub has officially launched a fellowship in 3 African countries – Burundi, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone – specifically designed at helping impact entrepreneurs make their innovations sustainable. The Hub’s Resilience Africa initiative is to launch hubs and two varying types of incubators in six African countries in partnership with Cordaid, an NGO from Netherlands.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
-
Zimbabwe to Reform Banking Industry
Zimbabwe is finalising new laws aimed at strengthening its fragile banking industry through measures such as imposing shareholding restrictions and revamping oversight functions to guard against insider loans.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending
-
Viewpoint: Why Is Financial Inclusion So High on the Development Agenda?
In the sustainable development priorities for the next 15 years adopted by heads of states in New York this week, the United Nations has highlighted financial inclusion as an important enabler for poorer households in the informal economies of the global south to increase resilience and better capture opportunities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
The Ikea-Backed Company Making Flat-Pack Refugee Shelters Can’t Keep Up With Demand
Less than six months after its first units shipped to Iraq and Ethiopia, a Swedish company producing modular, flat-packed refugee shelters is struggling to keep up with demand. And many of those orders are now coming from Europe.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Collectives Help Rural Women ‘Lean In’
In the world of microfinance, women’s collectives have acquired a great deal of prominence globally and are known by various names such as Self Help Groups (SHGs), Joint Liability Groups (JLG), or Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA). There is a strongly held belief that the formation of these groups has transformed the lives of women, improving their financial status due to the direct links between the microcredit, obtained through the group, and the livelihood activities financed by this credit.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- microfinance
-
This Indonesian Microfinance Startup Wants to Put Loan Sharks Out of Business
In Indonesia, 203 million people are classified as poor, living on less than US$4.50 per day. This group of consumers is not the section of the economic pyramid that conventional banks and insurance companies tend to prioritize, despite their making up the majority of the archipelago’s population. This is a problem Aidil Zulkifli, co-founder and CEO of UangTeman, hopes to solve.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
-
100 Small Steps: Will India’s Bank Licenses Bring Reform?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been steadily reforming India’s financial sector, in addition to achieving notable monetary policy successes. A few weeks back, the RBI granted licenses to 11 payments banks and followed that with licenses to 10 smallfinance banks.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.