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Press Release: WorldRemit Sees Remittances To Zimbabwe Double in Six Months and Introduces New Retail Partnership With Ok Zimbabwe
Earlier this year, the World Bank forecasted that in the wake of the Covid-19 economic crisis, remittance flows to Sub Saharan Africa would fall by 23.1%. However today, WorldRemit, the global online money transfer service has reported that the demand for their remittance services to Zimbabwe continues to grow at an accelerated rate and has doubled in the last six months for the company.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Money Transfer Firms Thrive as Pandemic Spurs Online Remittances
Having fled an economic implosion in his native Zimbabwe, Brighton Takawira was able to support his mother back home with modest earnings from a small perfume business he set up in South Africa. Then the pandemic struck. Borders closed. The buses he had used to send his cash stopped running.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Addressing the Weak Link in COVID-19 Relief: How Improving Strategic Communications Can Boost the Impact of Social Protection Programs
In response to COVID-19, 212 countries have planned or implemented more than 1,100 social protection programs to help over 1.8 billion people. But as Arshi Aadil and Abhishek Jain at MicroSave (MSC) point out, many intended recipients don’t know about the benefits they're eligible for, or how to access these funds. They explore how governments and program administrators can improve their communication and outreach.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Impact Assessment
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Maintaining a Critical Link To Last-Mile Customers: Challenges and Opportunities Facing Financial Service Agents During COVID-19
Agents are a critical last-mile link to financial services for lower-income households and micro- and small enterprises. But as the COVID-19 crisis has spread globally, it has had a profound effect on how agents operate, introducing new restrictions – and new responsibilities. Nisha Singh and James Robinson at Itad explore the findings from a recent report that highlights key strategies for building and managing high-performing agent networks despite the challenges of the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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Analysis: Building Back Better Means Designing Cash Transfers for Women’s Empowerment
Policymakers around the world are committed to building back better, and that starts by empowering women.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
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Analysis: Shielding the Poor From the COVID-19 Pandemic in India
India needs specific safety net schemes in the short term and agricultural interventions in the long term.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Why Mobile Money Growth Remains Stunted in Nigeria
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) published the Financial Inclusion Strategy (FIS) setting financial inclusion target of 80 percent realisation this year. Due to challenges within the system, the apex bank revised it last year to 95 percent by 2024. Mobile money, a veritable tool for achieving this ambitious goal, remains in the limbo because of certain factors.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Poverty Alleviation Efforts Are Shaping the Success of Environmental Targets
Social protection programs can facilitate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but can also create trade-offs across divergent social and environmental goals that can undermine their effectiveness, say the authors of new research published in the journal PNAS. This is one of the largest studies on the sustainability implications of social protection, funded by the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at The University of Sheffield.
- Categories
- Environment
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