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Viewpoint: Digital Equity, More Urgent Than Ever
Experts discuss overcoming racial and geographic disparities in a post-pandemic world.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
- Region
- North America
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Press Release: Careem, Visa, Sign Partnership to Accelerate Cashless Payments and Digital Financial Inclusion Across MENA
Visa push payment services will be available on the Careem Pay Super App for Captains to make low-cost money transfers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Why It’s Time for Africa to Adopt a Regional Digital Financial Identity
Over 1 billion people globally lack any form of officially recognized identification. According to Nkosinathi Ncube at FinMark Trust, this is a significant obstacle to financial inclusion and other development efforts – but overcoming it is no easy task. He explores some of the challenges to expanding access to formal identity in Africa, and explains why an effective solution will require regional action.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Not Just Another Startup Accelerator in India: How the Financial Inclusion Lab is Shining a Light on Underserved Customers
India today has an accelerator for almost every domain, ranging from fintechs to healthcare. But as analysts at MSC point out, many of these accelerators face a common shortcoming: a lack of inclusivity. They discuss how the Financial Inclusion Lab accelerator avoids that issue, and how it boosts startups to strengthen the financial inclusion movement in India.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Missed Calls = Missed Opportunities: How Starlogik is Converting a Mobile Billing Loophole into an Inclusive Innovation
The mobile telephony industry has done a remarkable job reaching poorer people in developing countries. But as Ignacio Mas at the Digital Frontiers Institute points out, this success has been shaped by customer ingenuity too – for instance, through the common practice of reallocating call charges by requesting call-backs via missed calls. He explores how Starlogik has formalized this billing loophole to create a mutually beneficial new feature.
- Categories
- Technology
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How Mastercard’s CEO is Working Toward Financial Inclusion During the Pandemic
“I believe that digitization is a mechanism to deliver inclusive growth,” he said, “but digitization is also the vehicle for those who are left out to feel even further left out.”
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Mastercard Expands Global Commitment To Connect 1B People
Mastercard’s latest pledge builds on its 2015 financial inclusion effort to bring financial services to 500 million people. It also builds on the firm’s goals of reaching out to people all over the world who are facing physical and financial health issues due to COVID-19.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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The Informal Economy is Complicating Government Responses to COVID-19: Will the Crisis Push Millions Toward Formality?
As COVID-19 devastates the global economy, many governments have designed support measures to help businesses and workers survive. But as Jill Lagos Shemin and James Dailey point out, this support may be ineffective in lower-income countries, where most small businesses and their employees work in the informal economy, lacking bank accounts and even valid ID. They explore some solutions governments can pursue – and trade-offs they will have to accept.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance