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Investing in Airtime: How an unlikely financial innovation is promoting economic security for girls in South Africa
Only 37 percent of women In the developing world have bank accounts, yet research has shown that poor women are inherent savers. Stellar has created an open source payments platform that’s being used to provide a mobile wallet in South Africa focused on promoting savings among girls. The wallet has a unique feature: along with cash deposits, it lets users deposit mobile airtime, and withdraw it later as cash.
- Categories
- Technology
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Upwardly Mobile: The Power of a United Approach to African Payment Innovation
The growing use of banking services in South Africa is driven by a national rollout of social security debit cards and strong economic growth across finance, real estate and business services sectors. According to the Banking Association of South Africa, just under a quarter of the adult population (23.5%) remains unbanked.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments
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Western Union to Cut Prices for Money Transfers Within U.S.
Western Union Co (WU.N) said it would cut prices for money transfers within the United States to help fend off fierce competition and would buy back up to $1.2 billion of shares.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- digital payments
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West Africa Lags in Mobile Money Usage
While most regions in Africa are recording significant uptake of mobile money, the West African region is lagging behind, according to a new report.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments
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ICICI Bank, India’s Largest Private Sector Bank, Launches New e-Wallet for Mobile Payments
ICICI Bank Ltd on Tuesday launched Pockets, a mobile payments wallet for Android phones, which can be topped up with money from any bank account for making phone-based payments.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments
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Firms Adopt Visa Digital Payment Card in Nigeria
Chams Mobile and Skye Bank Plc have signed an agreement to launch the Virtual Visa Card in Nigeria.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Weekly Roundup – 2/7/15: Debt and Forgiveness: A drastic solution to over-indebtedness among the poor
Seven years after a financial crisis caused in part by excess debt, all the world’s major economies have higher levels of borrowing than they did in 2007, said a report released this week. Meanwhile, one country has responded to excess debt among the poor by forcing lenders to forgive it. We discuss these developments, and some great financial inclusion news coming out of India, in this Roundup.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Egypt, MasterCard Sign MoU to Drive Financial Inclusion
The Government of Egypt, represented by The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and MasterCard have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a strategic collaboration that will help drive financial inclusion and maximize government efficiency.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East