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Mercy Corps and Mastercard Take Fintech to Farmers
Humanitarian agency Mercy Corps is partnering with Mastercard Foundation to push for adoption of technology to benefit millions of small-scale Kenyan farmers for better food production and ending perennial shortages.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kenya: Mobile money interoperability to launch in March 2018
Interoperability will also present consumers with choices of services and not being locked into one service or mobile network, given how costly it has been to transfer money between mobile money services.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Digital transactions on the rise in India – but fall drastically short of 25-billion target
Only about 14.8 billion digital transactions were undertaken across India from April 1 to January 28, show data sourced from the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY). This includes bank-to-bank electronic money transfers, digital wallet payments, Aadhaar-based and electronic toll payments.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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World Economic Forum tackles financial inclusion
"Financial inclusion is at a turning point. Due to advances in technology, the unprecedented advent of transactional and behavioural big data and greater multi stakeholder collaboration, there is a realistic opportunity to reach the financially excluded - estimated to be two billion - and the many more who are underserved", the group says in a report.
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Getting Real About Innovation: Why Accion’s U.S. Network Made the Leap to Digitize its Lending Operations
Technology can boost small businesses' access to finance, but can also risk trapping them in a cycle of debt. And for lenders serving lower-income entrepreneurs, these risks and rewards are more acute. Gina Harman, CEO of Accion’s U.S. Network, discusses its ambitious efforts to digitize lending operations across its national online platform in this podcast Q&A, exploring how established organizations can adapt to emerging technologies – without compromising their missions.
- Categories
- Finance
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From Haiti to China: 5 Pilots Begin to Reveal Digital Credit’s Uneven Impact
Demand for digital credit is growing in emerging markets, sparking opportunities for providers – and critical questions about its impact on low-income borrowers. CEGA's Digital Credit Observatory awarded five short-term pilot grants to studies in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, India and China, which provided some intriguing answers. Alexandra Wall, Natasha Beale and Carson Christiano of CEGA explore some of the studies' takeaways.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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The Secret Ingredient in Product Design: How Crossing the ‘Emotional Gateway’ Can Boost Financial Services
Banks can be intimidating places for people who have never set up an account, let alone stepped foot in one. But people love and trust their savings groups, which are a mainstay of financial security in dozens of countries. Innocent Ephraim at the Financial Sector Deepening Trust and Daryl Collins at Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) ask: How can formal providers offer financial services that appeal to users in the same way?
- Categories
- Finance
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The countdown begins: Top fintech trends that India can expect in 2018
The year has pretty much offered what everyone expected. It has cemented the significance of the fintech sector in India. From increased momentum behind digital payments to product innovation in digital loan disbursement platforms, the entire sector is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the nation functions the way it does and achieves the two-digit growth rate that it has persistently been longing for.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia