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Expanding mobile money programmes in Kenya
Over the past six years, Kenya has posted significant growth in mobile phone financial services – a sector that it has in many ways helped to pioneer – and the medium-term outlook looks equally encouraging as operators move to offer traditional banking products such as savings accounts and loans. With the sector gradually converging with conventional financial services, the central bank is moving to strengthen its regulatory oversight, which could alter market dynamics.
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Should non-bank financial institutions be a part of the financial inclusion agenda?
Deposit-taking non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), such as microfinance institutions (MFIs), financial cooperatives and postal banks, together serve approximately 596 million people in the global south. These institutions have many of the characteristics which research shows are key drivers for expanding access and reducing poverty.
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The Program on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance: From Harvard Business School and Accion
The six-day Harvard Business School–Accion Program on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance offers leaders from around the world an exceptional opportunity to connect with peers while engaging with some of the HBS faculty’s foremost thinkers in business strategy and management.
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How Small Savings Can Replace Small Borrowing: A well-designed savings product can help low-income consumers avoid costly short-term credit
Everyone is taught that it’s good to save money for a rainy day. Yet low-income people often struggle to save, leading them to turn to more expensive options like high-interest payday loans. But recent research from Doorways to Dreams shows that a well-designed savings product can dramatically help these consumers reduce their reliance on costly short-term credit.
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Finding Macro Solutions for Microfinance
Small loans to give backcountry villagers a modest start toward entrepreneurship — the bright idea that brought Muhammad Yunus the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, 30 years after he founded Grameen Bank in Bangladesh — is by now a fading ideal.
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Mobile Money in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The indirect path may be most effective for small business payments
Much of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) economy consists of small businesses, and most of them operate exclusively in cash. With only 4 percent of adults in DRC having a formal bank account, mobile money is key to improving the efficiency and security of small business payments. A recent report by InterMedia and GSMA highlighted opportunities for expanding mobile money use among small business owners.
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Yes – the sandwich generation can and should work in social enterprises
The generation sandwiched between looking after their children and parents can benefit financially from a new approach
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People-Centered Finance: How behavioral economics can improve financial products – part 2 of our Q&A with Alexandra Fiorillo, VP at ideas42
Why do people struggle to make sound financial decisions? Answering that question is one of the missions of ideas42, a consulting organization that specializes in behavioral economics, the study of how market decisions are made. We spoke with Alexandra Fiorillo, a vice president at ideas42, about how behavioral economics can improve financial product design.
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