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Borrowing and Saving – Not Two Sides of the Same Coin
From a mathematical point of view, borrowing and saving are mirror images. In both cases many small payments allow for one or more large payouts. Only the sequence differs. But after traveling to India and Kenya as part of a research project, we were struck by vast differences in the way people make borrowing and savings decisions - and these have profound implications for financial service providers.
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- Uncategorized
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Vodacom finds healthy market for funeral insurance in South Africa
Vodacom has launched a new funeral insurance product following the successful launch of its insurance business more than four years ago.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How to Help Low-Income People Save for Retirement: Make it Personal
Can personalized information about their pension payouts help lower-income individuals boost the size of their pensions? To find out, Innovations for Poverty Action placed eight publicly accessible computer modules in Chilean government offices, offering information on individuals' retirement savings from the national database. Here's what they found.
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- Investing
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New Brookings Report Highlights Advances in Financial and Digital Inclusion
Utilizing quality, affordable formal financial services effectively enables individuals to save for the future, invest in their livelihoods and families, and protect themselves in the case of financial emergencies. At the macroeconomic level, financial inclusion provides opportunities to promote economic growth, reduce income inequality, and combat poverty.
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- Technology
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The Olympics: Social Business Opportunity – or Expensive Distraction?
NB editor James Militzer can't stand the Olympics and he's found new reasons to especially hate this year's Games. Meanwhile, fellow editor Kyle Poplin loves the Olympics, thinks they're still relevant and that they can be used to solve global problems. Read their point-counterpoint and see where you come down on the spectrum.
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- Social Enterprise
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Among Foundations, Who’s the Biggest Impact Investor?
Figuring out which foundations engage in the most impact investing is not so easy. While some reports, like a 2015 study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy, have gauged how widespread this practice has become in foundations, actual dollar amounts are still hard to come by—unlike annual grantmaking tallies, which are readily available.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Africa Tops 500m Mobile Users, Adds $150bn To Continent’s Economy
Africa now has half a billion mobile users, and the mobile ecosystem added $153-billion to the African economy in 2015, according to a new GSMA study, which predicts smartphone numbers will triple in the next five years.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mobile Money Meets Microcredit: Creating an Evidence-Based Cross-Sell Strategy
Financial institutions serving low-income communities regularly turn to cross-selling to engage clients. But they don't always consider the particular needs of clients themselves. Based on its research on cross-sell initiatives, Bankable Frontier Associates explores what it takes to enhance clients’ engagement and encourage them to actively use multiple products with an institution over time.
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- Uncategorized