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COVID-19 Isn’t Killing Cash. People Are Hoarding More of It
People appear to be bunkering cash amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a study that seeks to debunk the notion that the pandemic was hastening the demise of paper money due to e-commerce or fears of infection.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Tags
- e-commerce
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Viewpoint: E-Remittance Firms Have Pushed Inclusion, and Will Lead the Recovery
What's making fintechs so popular for remittances? Aside from representing cost savings, being built from the ground up with user experience at the forefront has enabled these entities to be more flexible and inclusive than incumbents.
- Categories
- Finance
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GSMA Launches Mobile Money Test Platform
The GSMA launched a mobile money interoperability testing platform (ITP), designed to provide an open, secure environment for operators, financial providers and other stakeholders to trial systems ahead of full deployment.
- Categories
- Finance
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Digital Financial Inclusion in the Times of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic could be a game changer for digital financial services.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: Bangladesh-Based Clean Energy Firm SOLshare Successfully Closes US$1.1 Million Financing Round With Support From IIX Impact Partners
IIX Impact Partners – the world’s most successful debt and equity crowdfunding platform for impact investing – has supported Bangladesh-based off-grid solar energy firm SOLshare in closing a US$1.1 million financing round. Investors include innogy New Ventures LLC – the venture capital investment arm of the German utility firm innogy SE— the investment arm of Portuguese utility firm EDP Ventures, as well as new angel investors from around the world. Funding will be used to bring smart solar microgrids to off-grid, underserved communities in Bangladesh, putting SOLshare on track to positively impact 2.5 million people by 2023.
- Categories
- Energy, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Viewpoint: South African Banks Need to Do More to Ensure Financial Inclusion
An analysis of financial inclusion in South Africa shows that affordability limits poor households’ access to formal financial services. In our study, which looked at people’s use of financial goods and services between 2008 and 2015, we found that there was a general increase in use. But this was severely skewed to households with higher incomes.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: Developing Countries Could Lose Out as Automation Competes With Low-Cost Labour
The COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the rise of industrial automation and enable manufacturers in developed countries to compete with low-cost labour in the developing world; multinational corporations are already considering repatriating some manufacturing production as a result of the unprecedented disruption the pandemic has caused to global value chains; developing countries must respond by developing local industrial capabilities with new technologies and skills that will allow them to become more integrated into world trade.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Tags
- supply chains
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Championing Refugees Financial Inclusion in Rwanda
The UNHCR Rwanda counts around 150,000 refugees hosted by Rwanda in camps. The Mahama camp which is the largest in the country is home to over 61,000 refugees from Burundi. For many Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), a stay in refuge could last longer than 15 years. Yet, despite a steadfast and significant participation in the socio-economic activities of their host communities through education, small scale businesses, and casual labours, access to formal financial services for refugees in Rwanda was almost inexistent until recently.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa