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Ensuring That Women’s Financial Access Is Not Another Casualty of COVID-19: The Value of Agent Banking
As COVID-19 continues to ravage global economies, the existing gender-poverty gap is set to widen: UN Women projects that for every 100 men aged 25-34 in extreme poverty due to the pandemic, 118 women of the same age will be living in extreme poverty this year. Peris Mburu at FSD Africa explores why agent banking is a promising solution to this growing challenge – and how its benefits can extend beyond access to finance.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Nigeria’s Apex Bank Bans Mobile Money Operators From Receiving Remittances
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has suspended Mobile Money Operators, Payment Switch providers from receiving remittances or integrating their systems with International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Making Bank Accounts Work for Women: Lessons on Designing Gender-Centric Financial Services
Papua New Guinea has the highest gender gap in financial inclusion in the Pacific region, with women 29% less likely to have access to formal financial services. Akhand Tiwari and Moinuddin Mohammed at MicroSave (MSC) explore how MiBank, a local micro-bank, has boosted women's inclusion through gender-centric product design and outreach strategies – and what other providers can learn from their success.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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Will China Help Ease the COVID-19 Debt Burden on Emerging Markets?
Debt management has become a key challenge for many emerging markets as the coronavirus pandemic continues, with major creditors debating the suspension and perhaps even reduction of debt.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Impact Assessment
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Analysis: Keeping an Eye on Fintech in the Philippines
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Financial Inclusion Survey, only 29 percent of all adults were banked as of 2019. This means 51.2 million Filipinos remain unbanked.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Keeping Finance in the Family: How Intra-Family Accounts Can Help Low-Income Customers During COVID-19 – and Beyond
Banks in emerging countries often struggle to generate active usage of the accounts they offer to young people. Yet as Anne Marie van Swinderen at L-IFT points out, financial diaries research has shown that young people save frequently and significantly – especially when their earnings rise. She explores how intra-family accounts could help banks serve this challenging demographic during COVID-19 and in the longer term – while also expanding their financial services to other members of the family.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Viewpoint: Fintech in Africa: Reshaping the Financial Sector
Across many countries in Africa, fintech is improving financial inclusion and stimulating innovation and productivity in major sectors, such as the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector and the agriculture sector, the backbone of the region's economy.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Disconnects Between Minigrid Policy Stakeholders Keep Sector’s Bankability at Bay
Minigrids have yet to scale on a trajectory reflective of their massive potential.
- Categories
- Energy, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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