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Three Steps to Jumpstart Mobile Finance: Step 1 – Researching smallholders’ financial behavior to help them transition to mobile payments
It’s becoming increasingly clear that cash payment schemes are obsolete in the 21st century, says Lee Babcock. And in agriculture, there’s a growing recognition that enabling digital payments to smallholders is a huge opportunity, both for farmers and the mobile finance sector. In this three-part series, Babcock lays out three steps for embedding mobile money into agriculture development at the BoP.
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- Agriculture
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NexThought Monday – Financial Inclusion and the Internet of Things: How Smart Machines Can Benefit the Poor
The Internet of Things refers to the use of technology to automate data transfer between objects via the Internet. It’s billed as a disruptive technology of the next decade, with applications that range from home automation to wearable fitness devices. But it also has great potential to benefit the poor, by enabling payment mechanisms that let the underbanked access basic products and services.
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- Energy, Technology, Telecommunications
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Finding A Responsible Way Forward For Digital Finance: A CGAP global survey looks to shape the roadmap
Between 2011 and 2013, registered mobile money users almost tripled, growing to more than 200 million globally. But growing opportunities in the sector bring new risks for consumers, and new challenges for providers and regulators. That’s why CGAP has launched a global survey to help shed light on the state of practice, and drive discussion around responsible digital finance.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- digital payments, research
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Failure to Launch: Why Mobile Money Hasn’t Taken off in Nigeria – And How the Sector Can Turn Things Around
In contrast to other African countries, Nigeria’s digital finance sector has yet to take off, with one survey finding that just 0.01 percent of Nigerians have a mobile money account. Critics suggest the lack of progress is due to banks rather than telecoms leading the charge. But research from the Helix Institute of Digital Finance suggests that other factors may be responsible - and points toward some solutions.
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- Education, Finance, Technology
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Weekly Roundup – 7/19/14: Can’t we all just get along?
In a week marked by conflict and tragedy on the global stage, the financial world experienced its share of both. And though this was balanced with a fair amount of good news, even the positive developments sparked discord. We explore these issues in this weekly roundup.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday – The Cash Paradox: Is cash the poor’s best friend – or secret enemy?
Advocates for the poor often argue that cash is the most trustworthy payment instrument - especially for the unbanked. And a cash economy would appear to offer them advantages in inclusiveness and convenience. But as Bhaskar Chakravorti describes it, the poor also pay a heavy price for the usage of cash, both in the U.S. and in emerging economies.
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- Uncategorized
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Dispatches from the Mobile Money Revolution: Mondato Summit Africa highlights the dynamism (and tensions) behind the continent’s embrace of mobile finance
Africa is widely seen as ground zero in the mobile money revolution that’s sweeping the developing world. The Mondato Summit Africa brought some of the continent’s key mobile financial services players together for a lively, at times controversial discussion of the challenges and opportunities they face.
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- Uncategorized
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Proliferation, Dominance, Evolution & Impact: Helix report examines the status of mobile money agents in Kenya
Kenya is the world leader in mobile money services, and these services depend largely on the strength of their agent networks. The Helix Institute of Digital Finance explores that topic in its third Agent Network Accelerator country report. It focuses on the proliferation of agents in the country, the effect of Safaricom’s dominance, how the agent network is evolving, and the impact it is having on financial inclusion.
- Categories
- Education
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