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Move Over Facebook: WeChat Is Set to Become the Only App African Internet Users Need
As technology hubs from Silicon Valley to Bangalore work hard at devising digital approaches to finance that could alter the global banking landscape, mobile banking penetration in China has already exceeded390 million people. And for Chinese-owned Tencent Holdings, the world's fifth largest Internet company, China's 1.3 billion-strong market is just the beginning. The tech giant's best-known social network, WeChat, is fast gaining traction in Africa, and mobile banking is one area in which its influence is spreading.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Egyptian Government and Visa Sign Agreement to Help Bring Electronic Payments to Government Subsidies
The Egyptian government, represented by the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade and the Ministry of Planning, this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Visa Inc., to enable electronic payment of government subsidies to 22 million Egyptian families.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Viewpoint: How Mobile Banking Can Protect Refugees
“Mean spirited”, “inhumane” and desecrating the spirit of the Refugee Convention are some of the milder criticisms levelled at Denmark’s harsh new asylum laws, passed last week. Among new measures is a decision to strip new arrivals of any cash and valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner (US$1,450), purportedly to pay for their upkeep. Switzerland and some southern German states have introduced similar policies.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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UNICEF Innovation Fund Invites Blockchain Startups
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is including and inviting blockchain technology startups to apply for its ‘Innovation Fund’ with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of vulnerable children around the world.
- Categories
- Technology
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Technology Meets Healthcare in India
When it comes to healthcare, developing nations face the challenges of accessibility and affordability. This is particularly true for healthcare in India.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Can Tech Solutions Power a New Kind of Health Care for the Developing World?
People around the world risk their lives by trusting health care workers who sometimes are doing nothing more than shooting in the dark.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: Bitcoin Investment Has Neglected the Developing World
indesk, the leading Bitcoin news site, stated in its latest quarterly report (The State of Bitcoin and Blockchain) that one of the most heralded areas of bitcoin disruption, “banking for the unbanked” has been the most disappointing area of interest when it comes to investment. Only 0.12 percent of Bitcoin investment has gone to Africa. Of course, this seems to fly in the face of the assertions, which you won’t miss in the various Bitcoin forums as well as news sites, that Bitcoin is the technology that the poor in the developing world have been waiting to afford them cheap financial services. According to Michael Fraser, reporting leader at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAAZ):
- Categories
- Technology
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Report: Tanzania, other developing countries fail to gain from digital wealth
A new World Bank report says while developed economies have immensely benefited from digital technologies, Tanzania and many other developing countries have not.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- employment, mobile finance
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