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OPIC commits $8 million to support small farmer microlending in Myanmar
Proximity Finance, which designs its loans to meet the particular needs of smallholder farmers, is the microfinance arm of Proximity Designs, a social enterprise dedicated to serving Myanmar’s rural families.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Don’t Fear the Algorithm: The Risks and Benefits Of Machine Learning in Finance
Billions of people around the world lack access to basic financial services, and far too many promising entrepreneurs are deprived of financial opportunities simply because they don’t have a credit history. As JUMO founder and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball sees it, this lack of access is fundamentally a technology problem – and machine learning can help solve it. But algorithm-assisted banking is not without risks: Watkins-Ball discusses its benefits and downsides, and how it's powering JUMO's work in Africa and Asia.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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M-Pesa helps drive up Kenyans’ access to financial services – study
The proportion of Kenya’s population with access to formal financial services rose to 83 percent from 75 percent in 2016, driven largely by mobile technology, a survey part-conducted by the central bank showed on Wednesday.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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UN report highlights Afghanistan’s mobile money stumbling blocks
In the report, UNCTAD found: “The main drivers for mobile money are the ease and security of non-cash payments and the positive reputations of the telecommunication firms in the country. Having said this, the mobile money penetration in Afghanistan is relatively low.”
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Women Helping Women: How a Network of Female Digital Finance Agents is Boosting Empowerment in India
Digital finance has made great strides in India, but many women remain excluded – especially in rural areas. Grameen Foundation India is tackling this issue with a unique, digitally driven social enterprise model that harnesses the untapped potential of rural women, training them as field agents to extend digital finance to other women (and men) in their communities. Tanvi Gupta explores how these agents are empowering hundreds of thousands of women with access to financial services – while also generating needed income for themselves and their families.
- Categories
- Finance
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Sierra Leone launches competition on financial inclusion
The Sierra Leone FinTech Challenge 2019-2020 aims to harness the growing digital economy in order to develop and test innovative solutions as a way to leapfrog access to finance, and consequently build out government and private sector platforms to operationalize the benefits of the digital economy, the partners said in a joined statement published on Friday.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Moving the World Toward Meaningful Financial, Social and Economic Inclusion: Welcoming Our Newest Partner, MicroSave Consulting (MSC)
NextBillion is proud to announce our newest partner: MicroSave Consulting (MSC). The organization is a boutique consulting firm that has been a leading voice in financial inclusion for 20 years – and we have worked with them informally for years to share their insights and analysis with our readers. As we expand these collaborations into a formal partnership, we're looking forward to boosting our coverage of MSC's ongoing efforts to push the world towards meaningful financial, social and economic inclusion, unlocking the benefits of financial access for low-income customers.
- Categories
- Finance
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Report: New mobile money propositions have the potential to reduce the world’s unbanked population by more than a third
“Simply providing access to financial services is not enough. To achieve any real impact, people also need to become active users of financial products.”
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
Parent Organization
