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Coming Soon – Mondato Summit Africa 2020: Beyond Access – Generating Value Through Digital Inclusion
Advisory firm Mondato, in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening Mozambique and the Mozambican telecoms regulator, ARECOM, will host its seventh annual digital finance and fintech executive conference, Mondato Summit Africa, in Maputo, Mozambique, on March 31st and April 1st.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Is India the Next Battleground for African Fintech Startups?
As East African fintech startups look for growth opportunities in the face of increasing competition, many are considering expanding into new countries – and India is a top target. Analysts with BFA explore why these startups' established business models and tested skills give them a solid chance to succeed – and why the Indian market nevertheless presents a formidable challenge.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Innovating for Sustainable Data Collection: Generating ‘Gold Standard’ Survey Data – For 75% Less Cost
Traditional face-to-face surveys are regarded as the gold standard in financial inclusion. But sending surveyors out into excluded communities is expensive, and long surveys can result in cognitive fatigue and lower data quality. Grant Robertson at insight2impact (i2i) discusses a more sustainable approach i2i has developed, which uses a mixed-mode data collection strategy and statistical techniques to generate data of equivalent quality, for far less expense.
- Categories
- Finance
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Malawi Mobile Money Numbers Dive After Account Cull
In its national payments system report the Reserve Bank of Malawi said the number of mobile money accounts in the country fell to 6.2 million by the end of 2019.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Tech Startups Are Flooding Kenya With Apps Offering High-Interest Loans
Tala has made $1 billion in microloans to people in developing countries, all using its app. It says it can reach those who’ve been ignored by banks, because its software generates instant credit ratings from data scraped off prospective borrowers’ phones. The company is part of the financial-inclusion movement, a loose coalition of tech companies, banks, and nongovernmental organizations trying to lift people out of poverty by offering them new ways to gain access to loans and other financial services.
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- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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What’s Working – And What’s Not – in Africa: A New Report Aims to Inform Better Development Practice on the Continent
The challenges facing Africa are substantial – but so too are the unique assets the continent possesses. As the development sector works to address those challenges and leverage those assets, it's useful to highlight both the approaches that are working – and those that aren't. That's the goal of Next Generation's recent report on the social investment and development industry trends impacting Africa. Reana Rossouw explores its findings.
- Categories
- Technology
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Press Release: Financial Inclusion in West Africa Gets a Boost With New $10M Raise by Aella Fintech
For millions of poor and low-income households, entrepreneurs, and nascent businesses in West Africa without access to financial institutions, micro-lending fintechs like Aella provide a broader array of financial products — savings, insurance, payments and specialized loans, focused on lifting many out of poverty. Aella plans to use this funding to scale its lending operations and expand its product base into payments.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Leveraging Blockchain for Good: A Q&A with Ken Weber, Head of Social Impact at Ripple
Blockchain has been sparking social innovation for years – and much of it has focused on payments. Ripple has been an innovator in this space since 2012, leveraging its blockchain-powered payment technology to enable international remittances through a network that now spans over 40 countries and six continents. In this Q&A, Ken Weber, Ripple’s Head of Social Impact discusses the company's multi-faceted efforts to "advance socially responsible and equitable uses of blockchain, cryptocurrency and related technologies.”
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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