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Mobile Cash Transfers Empower Poor Niger Women
A working paper released by Center for Global Development reports on the first randomized evaluation of a short term mobile cash transfer program in Niger . According to the paper’s findings, women in households which use m-transfers, have greater control over the spending of the cash transfer and engage in consumption and production decisions. Households using m-transfers (ZAP) pu...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Zimbabwe: Telecel, ZimSwitch Provide Mobile Banking
Telecel, Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile network operator in terms of subscribers, has teamed up with ZimSwitch to provide mobile banking for Zimbabweans. The service, in a country just emerging from 10 years of economic meltdown, is widely viewed as a huge breakthrough as far as technology is concerned in the country. Telecel Zimbabwe Marketing Director, Obert Mandimika, said the joint venture with one of the country’s leading banks would enable banks to offer their cust...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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For The Energy Impoverished, Hugh Whalan Is A Ray Of LED [Video]
In order to read this you’ve powered up a computer, likely turned on a light, maybe you’re also charging your phone or brewing a cup of coffee. Every one of these actions is a small sip of energy that you take for granted. "In fact, you probably struggle to remember how many times and ways you use energy in a day," notes Hugh Whalan, the co-founder of Energy In...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Traveling Tellers, With Electronic Gear, Take Banking to Rural India
KOLAD, India - Time was, banks employed armies of human tellers. Later, they replaced many of them with automated teller machines. Now, India is using a hybrid of the two - the human A.T.M. - to expand banking to its vast rural population. Swati Yashwant, a 29-year-old mother of one, is part of a growing legion of roving tellers intent on providing bank accounts to the nearly 50 percent of India’s 300 million households that do not have them. Using a laptop computer, wireless modem ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Microfinance Infrastructure Can Expand Access to Energy in Africa
The Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION has on Tuesday released a report ’Microfinance and Energy Poverty’ . The report highlights strategies for leveraging infrastructure of microfinance institutions and savings groups to increase access to energy in Africa. According to the findings of the report, there is a large and growing dema...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The I-Slate: A Low-Cost Tablet for Kids in the Developing World
Over the years, computers have become an integral part of education in the developed world. But what of schools in less wealthy areas that lack access to electricity, not to mention the cash for pricey electronics? The solution may come in the form of a $50 handheld electronic tablet, dubbed the I-slate. The device, developed by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (...
- Region
- South Asia
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Banmujer: Benefitting Over 300,000 Venezuelan Families Since 2001
One of Venezuela’s most important public institutions created to assist impoverished women through micro- credit lending celebrated its 10-year anniversary last week. Banmujer first came into existence on September 21, 2001 as government run bank with the specific purpose of funding socio-productive business initiatives for women in particularly dire economic conditions. Since that time, the women’s bank has granted more than 138 thousand micro-credits, benefiting over 300,...
- Region
- Latin America
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Empowering Farmers with Mobile-enabled Kisan Card System
A mobile-enabled kisan card system to help the agricultural community engage in cashless transactions, especially with their input providers, was launched here on Sunday to benefit farmers in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu by Pallavan Grama Bank. K.C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, who launched the pilot project, said there was nothing new about mobile banking. "But this is for the first time that a structured launch involving the farming community have been don...
- Region
- South Asia
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