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Kenya mobile phone firms to offer cross-network cash transfers
Subscribers of Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom will be able to transfer and receive cash from one mobile network to another, the companies said in a joint statement published in the Business Daily newspaper.
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- Inclusive Fintech
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Incorporating Behavioral Science into Cash Transfer Programs Is Changing Lives
More than $200 million in direct cash payments is distributed daily to fight poverty in over 120 developing countries. Evidence shows that the programs are working – but there is new pressure on them to enhance their effectiveness. Josh Martin and Laura Rawlings discuss how ideas42 and the World Bank, with funding from the Global Innovation Initiative, are leveraging behavioral science to help families make the most effective use of cash payments to achieve their goals.
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- Inclusive Fintech, Technology
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International remittances to exceed $600bn in 2018
The World Bank estimates that global remittances will grow by 3.4% to $616 billion in 2018. Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average cost of 9.1%, remains the highest-cost region, it says.
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Most Influential Post Nominee: The UBI Debate: What We Know – and Don’t Know – About Universal Basic Income
Policymakers from Nairobi to Silicon Valley have lately been considering the same approach to reducing poverty: universal basic income (UBI). Evidence from ongoing randomized evaluations will be key to understanding the impact of UBI, and how this disruptive concept might fit into a broader portfolio of social policies. In the meantime, there is much we already know from impact evaluations of related interventions that can help make sense of the debate. Alison Fahey at J-PAL provides an overview.
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- Uncategorized
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WorldRemit nabs $40M at a $670M valuation to boost its money transfer business
WorldRemit, a London-based startup with some 2 million users that offers a quick way for people to send money to each other with a focus on developing markets, has raised more funds to help it take on the likes of Western Union in the remittances market, estimated by the World Bank to be worth some $596 million globally this year, and ramp its user number to 10 million.
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- Inclusive Fintech
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WFP Launches First Mobile Cash Transfers For Humanitarian Assistance In Myanmar
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched the first pilot programme using mobile cash transfers for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar. Between 27 February and 1 March, 112 conflict-affected internally displaced families in three camps in Myitkyina Township of Kachin State received a monthly electronic credit allocation of MMK 9,000 (US$ 7) per person for vulnerable households.
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- Technology
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- South Asia
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Weekly Roundup: Romanticizing Castro, Bridge’s Troubled Waters and the Benefits of Cash
NB's Weekly Roundup makes the call on whether Cuba's high quality of health care justified Castro’s means of achieving it; ponders the future of a private education company under attack from public sector foes; helps debunk the assumption that poor people, when given cash, will squander it on cigarettes and alcohol; and brings up the possibility that data, as it relates to public health, is a business opportunity.
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- Education, Entrepreneurship, Health Care, NextBillion Originals, Technology
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Cash transactions surge at Indian microfinance firms after note ban
Restrictions on cash withdrawals have had the perverse effect of boosting cash transactions in microfinance companies. Microlenders are hoarding cash received in repayments and then disbursing it to customers directly rather than depositing it into bank accounts, officials of at least three firms said.
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- Technology
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- South Asia
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