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Zimbabwe’s high interest rates, multiple borrowings and growing debts
Zimbabwe's microfinance institutions (MFIs) doled out $170 million worth of loans to clients in the first quarter of the year with the bulk of the funds going towards domestic consumption.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Incentives to lift mobile money uptake
Airtime can be used as an incentive to drive the uptake and usage of mobile money services in countries where its growth has been sluggish.
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- Uncategorized
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Fraudulent Mobile Money Transactions by Staff Cost MTN Uganda Billions
Mobile telecoms operator MTN Uganda has a history of losses resulting from internal misappropriation of funds. In a number of cases, former employees — mainly trade developers, mobile money agents and cleaners of contracted cleaning agencies — have faced convictions for defrauding the company.
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- Uncategorized
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From Vision to Reality: RBI ruling brings India one step closer to true financial inclusion
In a recent landmark ruling, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed non-banking financial companies to provide basic services such as bank accounts and transaction services. This paves the way for microfinance institutions to jump into the fray, and could drive true financial inclusion in a country where 720 million people still do not have a bank account.
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Safaricom and Kenya Commercial Bank Partner to Counter Equity’s Mobile Money Plan
KENYA Commercial Bank has partnered with Safaricom to offer a new product that converges financial and communication services to take on Equity Bank's planned mobile virtual network operation business.
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- Uncategorized
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Nigeria Launches National Bank Verification Scheme
VENTURES AFRICA – As part of the financial inclusion policy of the Financial Sector Strategy (FSS) agenda of ensuring Nigeria becomes one of the top 20 largest economies in the world by 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has advised bank customers in Lagos to register and obtain their Bank Verification Number (BVN).
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Big Three Credit Rating Agency Courts Impact Investing at Right Moment
NEW YORK — It’s not without rhyme or reason that a credit rating agency like Moody’s Investors Service suddenly takes an interest in the impact investing field. For Mark Tulay, founder and CEO of Sustainability Risk Advisors and Sustainability ROI, this institution has good reasons to do so. “Credit raters see that climate change could, or likely will, lead to an environmental crisis that will create the next economic crisis,” said Tulay at the TBLI CONFERENCE USA 2014.
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A Really Inconvenient Truth: The documentary “Spent” raises awareness of low-income Americans’ financial plight – but are banks really to blame?
To help spark a national dialogue about improving financial services, American Express sponsored the documentary "Spent: Looking for Change." Produced by the director of "An Inconvenient Truth," the film profiles struggling Americans who are ill-served by the financial industry. But it also illustrates another hard truth: our choices can impact our financial health more than our banks can.
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