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Cash’s Lockdown Hurts Financial Inclusion
Since the start of the pandemic, businesses around the world have drastically changed their operations to protect employees and customers. One significant pivot is discouraging the use of cash in favor of digital and contactless payment methods.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Enabling Ecosystems: How To Boost Fintech Innovation and Financial Inclusion During and After COVID-19
Lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have rapidly accelerated digitalization worldwide, particularly in finance. But as analysts from the University of New South Wales, the University of Luxembourg, the University of Hong Kong and GIZ point out, ensuring the safe and inclusive development of digital finance is a major challenge. They explore why an ecosystem-based strategy could be the answer.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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Mastercard Launches Pay-on-Demand Service
The ease and convenience of services backed with the emerging techs can dramatically improve the financial landscape in Africa.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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An Emerging Cornerstone of Last-Mile Distribution: The Power of Data and Process Digitalization
Social enterprises at the last mile are working relentlessly to close the gap in achieving the SDGs. But since their customers are generally underprivileged, they're also very sensitive to a product’s price, which means boosting efficiency is key to increasing these businesses' profitability. Thibault Lesueur and Simon Schaffner at Solaris Offgrid explore how process digitalization and interoperable software systems can streamline last-mile distribution and help these enterprises scale.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
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COVID-19: Burden or Boon for Financial Inclusion?
When the Alliance for Financial Inclusion outlined its “Five Key Financial Inclusion Policy Trends for 2020” on January 17 of this year, the spread of the novel coronavirus was still in its infancy. Now that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the global economy, Robin Newnham at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion revisits those trends, viewing them through the prism of the pandemic – and finding both new risks, and new opportunities.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Payments Fintech dLocal Raises $200 Million, Emerges as LatAm Unicorn
The company is planning on using the funding to boost growth by targeting 13 new markets over the next 18 months. The regions included Africa, Southeast Asia and Central America.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Analysis: Building Back Better Means Designing Cash Transfers for Women’s Empowerment
Policymakers around the world are committed to building back better, and that starts by empowering women.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
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Mobile Money Payment Limits in Zimbabwe Frustrating Business, Consumers
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s decision to continue restricting mobile money transaction limits at a time inflation has been rising has negatively affected the ease of doing business and hurt small businesses and the marginalized.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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