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Press Release: Investing in Africa’s People Yields Impact, Strengthens Efforts to Beat Pandemic
'Investing in women and girls is essential to deliver on the promise of development. It's that simple,' said Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for Africa. 'That's why we have helped our clients with over $2.2 billion of new World Bank-financed projects investing in women's health, education, and job opportunities.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, WASH
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Impact Investing in COVID-19 Times: A Three-Step Mission
Despite the economic crunch, the joint pursuit of profit and purpose may have a very bright future. But first, we need to return to basics.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Investing
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Five Ways Impact Investors Can Deal With the COVID-19 Dilemma
The coronavirus isn’t just affecting social businesses and charities – it’s also a concern for those investing in them, who may face reduced income themselves and an uncertain pipeline. How can they best respond, in a way that lives up to their role as true impact investors? Sung-Hyui Park and Louise Harman from UK law firm Bates Wells share insights from a recent discussion with social investors.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Investing
- Tags
- e-commerce
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African Payment Startup Chipper Cash Raises USD $13.8M
African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has closed a $13.8 million Series A funding round led by Deciens Capital and plans to hire 30 new staff globally.
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Rural Fintech Startup Jai Kisan Raises USD$3.9 million From Nabard-Back Fund, Others
Jai Kisan, a Mumbai-based fintech platform, on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 30 crore funding from Arkam Ventures with participation of a fund backed by NABARD.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- fintech, rural development, startups
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Bangladesh Faces a Crisis in Remittances Amid COVID-19
The economic importance of the more than 10 million migrants from Bangladesh who sent close to $18 billion in 2019 cannot be overstated. International remittances normally represent around 7% of Bangladesh’s GDP. But the COVID-19 pandemic is having an acute effect on Bangladeshi migrants abroad, who are largely concentrated in countries with strict lockdown measures. Considering the large volume of Bangladeshi migrants in the Middle East, secondary economic impacts through depressed demand and falling oil prices will also likely add strain to the flow of remittances.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Amid COVID Crisis, an Appeal to Facilitate Migrant Remittances
More than 200 million migrants across the globe send remittances to their home countries, many of them on the African continent, and that means some 800 million family members depend on them.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- migrants, remittances
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Financial Inclusion in the Wake of COVID-19
Lack of access to financial tools—like credit and savings accounts—inhibit socio-economic mobility for individuals living in poverty across the globe. For approximately the past 40 years, there has been a movement toward financial inclusion for emerging markets such as those found in sub-Saharan Africa, but the progress made thus far is now facing a grim outlook due to the global coronavirus pandemic. In this post, we will explore imminent threats posed to financial inclusion that are anticipated to trickle down as the effects of COVID-19 continue to be felt around the globe.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance