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Revisiting our Assumptions About Digital Financial Inclusion: Three Unexpected Findings from BFA’s FIBR Project
When BFA launched its FIBR (Financial Inclusion on Business Runways) R&D project four years ago, it outlined a set of assumptions about how smartphones, increased connectivity and digitization would help to accelerate financial inclusion for small businesses in Africa. As the project wraps up, BFA Founder and Chair David Porteous explores which of those assumptions still hold – and which need to be reassessed as unanticipated developments have reshaped the market.
- Categories
- Finance
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Online Banking Still a Reserve for the Rich in Kenya – Survey
People in higher income brackets use their phones to obtain more information on products and services before purchase, and across all income brackets, users regularly keep track of their online fund balances.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Evolution of Inclusive Finance Data: What’s Next for MIX
Since 2002, MIX has been a key resource for global inclusive finance data. Its initial focus was to build transparency in microfinance through shared data standards and common metrics, and it compiled a huge dataset, MIX Market, that became a critical source of information for the industry. But MIX recently announced two important shifts to its approach. CEO Camilla Nestor discusses these changes, and what they mean for MIX and the inclusive finance industry.
- Categories
- Finance
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The Group Overseeing Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency Will Apply for a Payments License in Switzerland
The Libra Association, the organization in charge of overseeing Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency, said Wednesday it will apply for a payments license in Switzerland.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Zimbabwe’s EcoCash Woes Show Dangers of Early Reliance on Mobile Money
The growth of EcoCash was driven by its ability to extend financial inclusion by drawing in previously unbanked customers. But recurrent power blackouts and food shortages in the context of a currency crisis are now showing the fragility of that model.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India Post Payments Bank Rolls out Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Services
With AePS services, any person with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can perform basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Press Release: Mayada El-Zoghbi Is the New Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion
"For more than a decade, CFI has played an important role, challenging and engaging the financial services industry to better serve, protect, and empower people around the world. I am pleased that Mayada El-Zoghbi has accepted to join as the new managing director. Her extensive experience in research and advocacy position her as the right leader to build on CFI's strong foundation of innovative, industry-shaping work," said Accion CEO and President Michael Schlein.
- Categories
- Finance
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Rwanda Is the Latest African Country Considering a National Digital Currency to Boost Financial Inclusion
Rwanda is the second African country to show an interest in a digital currency this year. Earlier in 2019, South Africa’s central bank announced that it was doing a feasibility project.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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