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Cash Still Trumps Mobile Payments and Bitcoin in Africa
According to the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion Index, Africa has the highest mobile money adoption rate in the world. Worldwide, only 2 percent of the population possesses a mobile money account; in Africa, 12 percent of the population uses mobile money.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mobile wallet firms see positive impact from new authentication rule in India
The removal of two-factor authentication for card transactions below Rs2,000 has made it easier for credit and debit card users, but digital wallets do not have much to worry from the change, industry executives and analysts said.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Indians Skipping Plastic Money, Leapfrogging to Mobile Wallets
Unlike the West, Japan and China, which slowly graduated from landline to cordless to cellular telephony and from cash to plastic to mobile payments mode, India has virtually skipped the intermediate stages — cordless telephones and plastic money — of this technological revolution and jumped into cellular telephony and digital banking transaction.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Opinion: The Achilles’ Heel For Payments Banks And Financial Inclusion
The RBI's latest operating guidelines for payments banks permit payments banks to "use KYC done by the promoter / promoter group entity", if it "is of the same quality as prescribed for a banking company". This will allow payments banks to leverage their existing telco customer base, and (where KYC has been done to prescribed standard) send out SMSs offering to open an account at the click of a button.
- Categories
- Technology
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KCB Bank Kenya, Western Union Introduce Mobile Money Transfer
KCB Bank Kenya and Western Union have launched a mobile-phone based money transfer service.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Report: This Is What Would Happen to Kenya’s Economy if M-Pesa Was to Collapse
A Treasury report warns that an M-Pesa outage would cause loss of revenue and reduce confidence in the mobile money transfer services. FILE PHOTOA Treasury report warns that an M-Pesa outage would cause loss of revenue and reduce confidence in the mobile money transfer services.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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New Pathways to Financial Inclusion for Low-Income Women
Developing countries have made great strides on financial inclusion in recent years, but a gender gap remains. A new report analyzes women’s stories and their detailed cash flows over time from financial diaries data collected in Kenya, India and Mexico, offering insight into why women in emerging economies don’t use formal financial services to the same extent as men.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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M-Wallets Surge in Small Towns in Nation-Wide Cash-Crunch in India
As India outlawed its two biggest banknotes, mobile wallets are witnessing a spurt in enquiries and usage in small towns, as unavailability of currency hit wide across the country.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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