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M-Pesa Revenue Dip in Kenya Is Beyond Mobile Money Fee Waivers
While it’s logically a good move putting the health and the wellbeing of people first, this single directive is found to have also caused a significant dip in revenue for Kenya’s dominant mobile money service, M-Pesa, and by extension, the country’s leading telco, Safaricom, took a hit.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Pandemic Draws More Latin American Poor Into Banking System
Sonia Fierro has lived her entire adult life selling children’s books on the streets of Colombia’s capital, earning wages that barely cover her living expenses, let alone the monthly fees that come with a bank account.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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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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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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‘Our Only Competition Is Poverty’: How Avanti Finance Aims To Create a ‘Population-Scale’ Digital Microfinance Platform in India
India has long been a hotbed of digital financial innovation. Avanti Finance is an emerging innovator in the sector, with a digital lending platform that aims to bring affordable microfinance to even the poorest customers. NextBillion spoke with CEO Rahul Gupta to discuss Avanti’s unique model, and the challenges of serving low-income customers both efficiently and responsibly.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Can Microlenders Make a Comeback?
Once hailed as a game-changer for the impoverished, microlenders are falling behind in the digital race while online lenders and commercial banks poach their turf.
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Mobile Industry Closing ‘Digital Divide’ Across All 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Says GSMA
For the fifth year in a row the mobile industry has increased its impact across all 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) enabling essential services for people and businesses.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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