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The One-Rupee Trick: How Banks Cut Their Zero-Balance Jan Dhan Accounts
In August 2014, a few weeks after the launch of Jan Dhan, the government’s flagship scheme under which the unbanked get bank accounts, Kamlesh, a housewife at Purnapur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, opened an account at the Punjab and Sind Bank’s local branch. Wife of a farmer, the opening balance in her account was zero. This wasn’t unusual — in fact, accounts like Kamlesh’s, called zero-balance accounts, made up almost half of all the 17.90 crore Jan Dhan accounts a year later given that most of the holders were poor and had little by way of savings.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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The 9 Best Countries to Be a Social Entrepreneur
Social entrepreneurs using businesses as a way to tackle social problems are emerging across the world.
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- Uncategorized
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Eight Principles for Digital Payments in Humanitarian Response
Recognizing both the practical challenges to using locally available digital payment services and the powerful opportunity to leverage humanitarian spending to build inclusive, lasting financial infrastructure, 24 public, multilateral and nongovernmental organizations met in Barcelona earlier this year and developed eight principles for digital payments in humanitarian response.
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India’s Microfinance Industry Clocked 60% Growth in Fiscal 2016
After years of subdued growth, the Indian microfinance (MFI) industry expanded more than 60% to Rs54,329 crore in 2015-16 compared to the previous year, according to a report prepared by Sa-Dhan, the self regulatory organisation of MFIs.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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How Digital Financial Services Can Lift Nigerians Out of Poverty
A report, the “financial inclusion insight (FII),” has stressed that digital financial services (DFS) can play a key role in managing expenses and setting individuals and households on paths to stay out of poverty permanently.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Report: Islamic Finance Will Shoot Up to $6.5 Trillion by 2020
The Global Islamic Financial system is multiplying on a fast track basis, and will touch $6.5 trillion by 2020. This is projected by the International Financial Service Board. The volume expanded from a meager $150 billion in 1990 to $ 1.8 trillion in 2015, the board reported.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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- Islamic finance, lending
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To Reach Millennial Customers, This Kenyan Telecom Giant Tried Shopping Like Them
For the last 16 years Safaricom, Kenya’s largest publicly traded company and East Africa’s largest telecom, has focused on signing up more mobile subscribers. With 87% of Kenya’s population already subscribed to mobile phone plans, Safaricom, partly owned by Britain’s Vodafone—along with its newer rivals such as India’s Bharti Airtel or Orange Kenya, partly owned by France’s Orange SA—are now chasing a smaller slice of the pie.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Madagascar Becomes Second Market in Africa With Mobile Money Interoperability
The GSMA today announced that all three mobile money providers in Madagascar – Airtel Money, mVola and Orange Money – are rolling out interoperable mobile money services across the entire country. This launch makes Madagascar the second market in Africa, following Tanzania, where all mobile money providers are making their services interoperable, allowing transactions to flow seamlessly across all mobile money providers.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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