-
Microfinance breakthrough: Dean Yang uses fingerprints to boost microlending in Malawi
Eight years ago, development economist Dean Yang spent a week in Malawi visiting microfinance institutions, the banks and credit unions that provide financial services to some of the world's most vulnerable citizens.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
A New Fund Seeks Both Financial and Social Returns
“There is a lazy mindedness that we afford the do-gooders.” That was Bono, the musician turned activist turned investor, lamenting the pitfalls of what has become an increasingly fashionable form of financing: social impact investing.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
-
A Solution to the Drama of Digital Finance
There are advantages to being a digital financial services provider, but also risks surrounding questions such as: Which business model should I choose? Should I develop my own digital platform or leverage someone else’s? Do I want to deploy my own network of agents? Will I partner with an MNO? That's why UNCDF’s MicroLead program, PHB Development and The MasterCard Foundation are working together to provide toolkits for FSPs.
- Categories
- Technology
-
How Paytm is brazenly piggybacking on banks and telcos in India
It should be galling for telecom service providers like Airtel and Vodafone to find Paytm (used as a metaphor for mobile wallet service providers) using the mobile numbers of their customers to provide mobile wallet services to them.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
-
Ghana telco MTN in talks with banks to offer microcredit to SMEs
Mobile telephony giants MTN has said it will from next year partner some financial institutions to provide microcredit to small and medium-scale enterprises.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Viewpoint: Why Microfinance Is an Ugly Word in India’s Villages
Vidarbha, the cotton bowl of India - which has been periodically witnessing the spectre of suicide with farmers plagued by unmanageable debts taking their lives - is now back in news for almost similar reasons. This time, in the centre of the storm are microfinance institutions. Borrowers in four districts - Nagpur, Amravati Yavatmal and Wardha - have started defaulting on their loans, egged on by politicians.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Tanzania: 86% Are Financially Included, a New Twaweza Study Says
The number of Tanzanian adults who have access to financial services has increased to 86 per cent compared with 16 per cent recorded in 2009, a new study reveals.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Opportunity International Sells Share of Rwanda’s Largest Microfinance Bank to HOPE International
Opportunity International and its affiliates in Canada and Germany have completed a share purchase agreement to sell its 50 percent ownership of Urwego Opportunity Bank (“Urwego”) to HOPE International, a network of Christ-centered microenterprise development programs in 16 countries.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa