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Bfree Raises $3.1 Million to Tackle Africa’s Growing Digital Loan Crisis
Unlike traditional debt collection firms, Bfree uses artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to analyse borrower behaviour, estimate repayment capacity, and create personalised repayment arrangements.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Thunes and Vodacom Tanzania Launch Cross-Border M-Pesa Payments for Uganda and China
Thanks to the collaboration, Vodacom customers in Tanzania can now seamlessly pay merchants in Uganda and China directly from their mobile phones.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Who Really Uses Her Mobile Money Account?
While men generally operated mobile money directly, the women they interviewed in rural Ghana were largely dependent on an intermediary to complete even the simplest transaction: a husband, a daughter, a neighbor or a local agent.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Latin America’s Digital Bank Plata Secures $405 Million in Series C Funding, Reaching $5B Valuation
Previously focused on credit cards, the platform has now introduced deposit accounts and debit cards, delivering comprehensive digital banking solutions to Mexican consumers for the first time.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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The Myths and Realities of Inclusive Insurance: Lessons from the Field
Across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), insurance penetration is around 1% of GDP, compared to a global average of around 7%. According to Rehan Butt at Instaful Solutions, policymakers, donors and insurers have increasingly turned to “inclusive insurance” to reach LMIC customers — yet they often mistakenly approach it as a scaled down or charitable version of traditional insurance. He argues that inclusive insurance represents a fundamentally different business model, with distinct product design, processes, distribution and economics, and highlights some misconceptions that can cause these insurance products and programs to underperform.
- Categories
- Finance
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Designing Finance for the Realities of Youth: Applications are Open for the Newly Renamed Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance
Over 1.3 billion people in emerging economies are between 18 and 35, and the median age in some developing countries is in the teens or low twenties. As Sam Mendelson at e-MFP and Tim Nourse at Making Cents argue, young people represent the economic center of gravity in the Global South, yet financial systems were not designed to serve their shifting needs. They explore opportunities to unlock youth-inclusive finance — the theme of this year's Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance (formerly known as the European Microfinance Award).
- Categories
- Finance
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Creating a Local Means of Exchange for African Entrepreneurs: How a Blockchain-Based Community Currency Gained Traction in Tanzania
In African communities, the lack of disposable income often hinders economic growth, and many local entrepreneurs are excluded from centralized, formal finance. Malik El Bay at the Encointer Association and Alinagwe Mwaselela at Jukumu NGO explore how their organizations are addressing this issue by leveraging blockchain technology to enable community members in Dar es Salaam to independently create and manage their own local cryptocurrency. They explain how this community currency model can be leveraged to support economic growth and entrepreneurship across Africa and other emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Press Release: Mal Closes Record $230 Million Seed Round to Build World’s First AI-Native Islamic Digital Bank
This will be the world's first AI-native Islamic financial platform targeting the world’s 2 billion Muslim population and other underbanked communities.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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