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Asian Development Bank Approves $25M Loan to Support Women-Led SMEs
Access to finance is very limited in Pakistan, with only 21.3% of adults and only 7% of women over the age of 15 having bank accounts in fiscal year 2017, according to available data.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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China’s Proposed Digital Currency Will Help Banks Bridge Gap on Mobile Payment, Curb Dominance of Alipay, Wechat
Banks’ participation in the central bank’s digital currency will help them better compete with third party payment network operators.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Microfinance Is Driving Many Sri Lankan Borrowers to Despair
Nalani Wickremesinghe, from Baduraliya in the south, has taken loans from 11 companies, only two of which are registered with the central bank. Struggling to feed her family, she has little option but to borrow again.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Survey: Cash Payment Still ‘King’ in Kenya, Despite Digital Money Growth
According to the report, just under half of domestic remittances and 30 per cent of bill payments are now made via mobile money.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: For Facebook’s Cryptocurrency, the Well May Already Be Poisoned
Facebook's new Libra coin is asset-backed and runs on a restricted network, which could make it as stable as a major currency — setting it apart from other, much more volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press Release: Grant Awarded to Establish Aceli Africa, a Data-Driven Financing Facility to Unlock Capital for Agricultural SMEs
According to the World Bank, agricultural growth in Africa is significantly more effective at reducing poverty than growth in other economic sectors. Agricultural SMEs, including farmer cooperatives and food processors, improve livelihoods by aggregating and linking smallholder farmers to markets and generating employment for low-skill workers, particularly women and youth.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- blended finance
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Viewpoint: Perpetual Debt in the Silicon Savannah
One Kenyan argued the apps are ‘enslaving’ people—from the working poor to the salaried classes—by making claims on their future labor.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Maxing Out Mexico: Credit Card System Comes to a Halt
Reuters’ witnesses in Mexico City said they had their cards declined at different stores and saw others that had put up signs informing customers that their payment systems were down. Twitter users outside the capital reported the same problems.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America