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Pakistan banks embark on financial inclusion
The Pakistani banking sector, which has already been highly profitable, is on track to expand further with millions of new customers set to enter its fold owing to financial inclusion initiatives. The priority target of the Financial Inclusion Plan (FIP) is to raise the number of customers with access to bank accounts and services to 50 per cent of the adult population. The number was 23 per cent in 2015 and 12 per cent in 2008.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Five Bright Spots and Four Causes For Worry From The First Official Indian Health Survey In A Decade
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare finally released the findings of the fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS), India's primary source of data on public health, on Tuesday. The NFHS-4, which is meant to be conducted every five years, comes after a ten year gap this time because of differences of opinion between the government and its partners.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public health
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As Funds Invoke Bible Values, Others See Intolerance
Serving both God and money has long been an aim of fund companies that exclude “sin stocks” of companies dealing in tobacco, guns, gambling and the like in their investments.
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- Investing
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A New Class of Toilets
“Excuse me. May I use your toilet?” Meseret Workneh takes great joy in hearing this ordinary request. Only five months ago, this twenty-seven-year-old mother of one could barely make ends meet from selling coffee on the side of the road. Now she manages her own public pay-for-use toilet in Africa’s largest open air market, Merkato, in Ethiopia’s capital.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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In India, merely opening accounts for women won’t ensure equality
For some reason, the government appears to have developed last-minute cold feet about delivering the coup de grâce to the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, started with much fanfare a few years ago as a bank of, for and by women, which has been going nowhere in a hurry since its launch.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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This Idea for Fighting Global Poverty Keeps Getting Hotter, Especially in Silicon Valley
Interest keeps growing among funders in the idea of fighting global poverty by making direct cash transfers to poor households and letting the recipients spend that money as they see fit. And nowhere is this interest stronger than in Silicon Valley, where GiveDirectly—the lead nonprofit promoting cash transfers—has found some powerful allies.
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- Technology
- Region
- North America
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Latest GSMA Report Highlights Success of Mobile Money with over Half a Billion Accounts Worldwide
The GSMA today unveiled its sixth ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’, offering a current snapshot of the mobile money landscape and highlighting the impact of mobile money on lives, economies and innovation over the past 10 years. The report provides the only comprehensive picture of mobile money around the globe.
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- Technology
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Mobile Money Not As Useful As Expected For Banking Poorer, Rural Africans
Kenya’s banks came together this month to launch PesaLink, a new platform that will be integrated into all banks in the country, allowing users to seamlessly send money from one bank to another. The move signifies major new competition for Safaricom’s M-Pesa and other mobile money services, which launched initially to streamline the process of sending money.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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