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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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MSME E-Commerce Enabler Shopmatic Sees 40% Revenue Growth Amid COVID; Aims to Turn Cash Positive in 2021
Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Shopmatic had acquired CombineSell in October 2019 and Octopus Retail Management in March 2019 while it had partnered with PayU, OnlineSales.ai, United Overseas Bank - Singapore, and CIMB Bank - Malaysia to help SMEs enhance their omnichannel presence.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Analysis: International Trade: Year in Review 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted global trade in 2020. However, it has also caused new paradigms to emerge, some of which point to potentially positive outcomes over the medium term.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship
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Bangladesh to Begin COVID-19 Vaccinations Next Month
The South Asian country of more than 160 million in November signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India to buy 30 million doses of the vaccine developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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How India’s Renewable Energy Sector Survived and Thrived in a Turbulent 2020
Record-low solar tariffs and flexible clean power auctions pushed India’s renewable energy growth in the midst of pandemic impacts. Now, it’s a question of pace.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Analysis: Data-Driven Social Safety Net Response to the COVID-19 Crisis in Ghana
The government’s social protection authorities augmented and adjusted existing data systems to help inform the design, implementation, and monitoring of the country’s social safety net response to the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- coronavirus, data, governance, social impact, technology
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Press Release: Education Cannot Wait Approves US $33.3 Million for Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the Central Sahel
In response to escalating crises in the Central Sahel, these new programmes will reach 300,000 children and youth impacted by displacement, conflict and COVID-19
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Mexico’s Central Bank Plans to Move Payments to Digital
In Mexico, the pandemic is moving the needle toward digital payments — specifically mobile payments — to become more widely embraced by businesses and consumers alike.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America