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Chinese Fintech Company Ant Financial Quietly Takes Stake in Vietnam’s eMonkey Amid Anti-China Sentiment
Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial has quietly acquired a sizeable stake in Vietnamese e-wallet eMonkey, sources say.
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- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Vodacom Tanzania and WorldRemit Launch Mobile Money Transfers to M-Pesa Accounts
Using the WorldRemit app, Tanzanians living abroad in over 50 countries can send money home and the new service increases convenience for recipients in Tanzania who can receive international money transfers directly to their phones, without the need for a bank account or internet connection.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Payment Startup Chipper Cash Raises $6m for Southern Africa Expansion
In September, Chipper Cash expanded into what is now arguably Africa’s largest fintech market, Nigeria. With its latest round, the startup has raised more than $8 million in seed capital.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Nobody Reads Privacy Policies: Why We Need to Go Beyond Consent to Ensure Data Privacy
We all “say” we read the privacy policies when we agree to the terms and conditions on websites and apps - but up to 97% of people don't actually read them. And even if we read them, few of us can understand the legalese. Now that the age of Big Data has reached emerging markets, and digital tech makes obtaining and monetizing user data easier than ever before, this lack of data privacy is a growing concern. David Medine and Gayatri Murthy at CGAP explore the problem – and some innovative tools that can help protect the world’s newest and most vulnerable digital consumers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Visa and MFS Africa Team on Digital Payments
“Africa is adopting a mobile-led, digital payments ecosystem and with Visa looking to accelerate the distribution of payment credentials and expand the acceptance space for digital payments, this partnership is an important one,” says Jack Forestell, chief product officer, Visa.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Tech Revolution in Financial Inclusion is Excluding Last-Mile Customers: Here are Four Ways to Reach Them
The world is experiencing a surge in internet access, with almost 300 million new users in 2019 – and this growth is happening especially in developing countries. But in many communities, this access is unreliable and unevenly distributed, say Rodrigo de Reyes and Mauricio Romero at Fundación Capital – and this has serious repercussions for digital and financial inclusion. They explore four key ways to deal with this challenge when serving last-mile customers.
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- Finance, Technology
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Kenya’s Safaricom Tests New Mobile Savings Service
Policymakers say the East African nation suffers from a low national savings rate and analysts said Safaricom could be looking to target that untapped market with the new product, dubbed “Mali” (Kiswahili for wealth).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From Heritage to Habit: Why Digital Remittances Languish in Some Cultures But Surge in Others
Thirty years after their introduction, digital remittances have failed to take off. Some 90% of remittances still begin as cash and end as cash - even when banks are the intermediary. Lack of trust, access and interoperability - to name just a few challenges - are keeping lower-income people tied to costlier cash transfers. However, remittance providers and related fintech entities are exploring many new avenues to encourage recipients to keep remittances in the digital ecosystem and possibly use them for other financial products, writes Steven Davidson with Mondato.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology