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Mastercard and Uber Extend Partnership to Boost Growth of Digital Economy in Middle East and Africa
Mastercard and Uber has announced extending their long-standing partnership with a new strategic initiative focusing on digital payments and advancing financial inclusions, facilitated by Mastercard across the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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New Alliance Between Itaú and Rappi Will Bring Greater Financial Inclusion to Chile
This agreement aims to revolutionize the local financial market with simple, innovative and unique digital products, allowing an increasing number of individuals to access new financial solutions in an agile and digital way.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press Release: Unite Us Announces It Has Raised $150 Million to Scale Nationwide Social Care Infrastructure
Unite Us, an enterprise technology company providing the digital infrastructure to power the integrated health and social care ecosystem, today announced that it has raised $150 million in a Series C financing led by ICONIQ Growth. The investment follows a record performance in 2020 for Unite Us that saw it expand into 42 states, including 16 new statewide networks, driving cross-sector coordination and improved health in community-based settings.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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Social Protection Goes Digital: Lessons From an Innovative, WhatsApp-Driven Outreach Campaign in Paraguay
The COVID-19 lockdown has reshaped social policy in Paraguay, as programs that depended on face-to-face contact to reach participants suddenly found themselves unable to conduct their usual outreach. Cristina Heisecke, Carolina de Miranda and Mauricio Royg of Fundación Capital share lessons from an innovative solution to this challenge: a digital campaign that used WhatsApp to offer a remote alternative to the in-person training and coaching of the country's flagship cash transfer program.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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An Overlooked Engine of Economic Growth: Delivering Products – and Enabling Livelihoods – in Refugee Communities
The Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee camps in Kenya are home to nearly 200,000 people from 22 countries. Contrary to the stereotype of refugee settlements, these are thriving communities with around 2,500 businesses and over $56 million in economic activity per year. But as Sasha Kapadia at Mastercard points out, their economic growth is stifled by a lack of reliable electricity. She discusses a public-private partnership co-chaired by Mastercard and USAID, which is training people in these communities as sales agents for solar energy products, to spur entrepreneurship and boost access to energy and other essential products.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship
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A Silver Lining During the Pandemic: Three Financial Inclusion Success Stories in the Age of COVID-19
COVID-19 has had a dramatic negative impact on businesses across practically all sectors. When it comes to financial inclusion, the pandemic has sparked concerns about a widening digital divide, rising gender inequality, growing skepticism over informal financial practices, and the risk of overlooking financially vulnerable customers. But as Anshul Saxena at MSC points out, the crisis has also generated some encouraging success stories. He highlights three businesses that have found ways to thrive during the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Innovation for Adaptation: How a New Fund Is Helping Service Providers Navigate the Challenges of COVID-19
The impact of COVID-19 has been amplified at the local level in Kenya and Rwanda, where non-profit service providers working with vulnerable populations are finding it more difficult to support their beneficiaries. Michael Kiema and Linda Ndungu Wambua at Instiglio explore learnings from the COVID-19 Adaptation Fund, which is providing funding to nine qualifying service providers to help them implement innovations that will support their efforts to serve beneficiaries during the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Financial Inclusion During – and After – COVID-19: Three Takeaways From a (Very Different) European Microfinance Week 2020
The 2020 European Microfinance Week encapsulated much about the financial inclusion sector – the good, the bad and the simply confusing – as it navigated the historic challenges of the past year. Sam Mendelson at e-MFP shares three broad takeaways from the event, representing three key priorities for the inclusive finance industry as it seeks to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis – without overlooking other essential priorities.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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