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Transaction Volume for Direct Debits Jumps by 54% as More Nigerians Adopt Usage
FINANCIAL SERVICESTransaction volume for Direct debits jumps by 54% as more Nigerians adopt usage
A recent Banking Sector Report by the NBS has disclosed that direct debits increased by 54% in Q3 2020.- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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With Investors Expecting a Latin America Cryptocurrency Boom, Mexico’s Bitso Raises $62 Million
Six years after the launch of the Mexico-based cryptocurrency exchange and financial services platform Bitso, the company revealed it has closed on $62 million in financing to capitalize on the cryptocurrency boom investors expect to hit Latin America.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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$500 Million Asian Development Bank Loan to Expand Financial Inclusion in Indonesia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $500 million policy-based loan to support the Government of Indonesia's efforts to expand financial access among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and marginalized groups such as women and youth.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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WDI Leads Research in Gender Equity Impact Investment Effort
The project focuses on 29 SMEs across multiple LMICs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These businesses work in a variety of sectors, including microfinance and financial inclusion, food and agriculture, and renewable energy and climate. WDI will investigate the outcomes of gender-smart TA provided to SMEs supported by their investors.
- Categories
- Investing
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Analysis: Remittances Show Promise in the Face of the Ongoing Global COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed catastrophic consequences across the world, with a disproportionate effect on Latin America and the Caribbean. With a projected 9 percent contraction in regional gross domestic product (GDP) for this year, experts fear that the heightened economic uncertainty and lower foreign demand brought on by the health crisis might signify yet another lost decade for Latin America. There is one factor, however, that paints a particularly promising picture for the outlook of the region: remittances.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Press Release: IIX Accelerates Gender Bond Issuances With Pricing of Women’s Livelihood Bond 3
Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) has successfully priced the US$27.7 million Women’s Livelihood BondTM 3 (WLB3), the third bond in the award-winning Women’s Livelihood BondTM Series (WLB Series). Advancing a total of 13 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WLB3 complies with the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) Social Bond Principles and will support 180,000 underserved women and women entrepreneurs in the Asia Pacific region to respond, to recover from, and to build resilience in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The WLB3 is also the maiden investment of IIX’s Women’s Catalyst Fund, a next generation gender lens vehicle designed to accelerate innovative financial instruments for women.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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An Unlevel Playing Field: Why Small Businesses Face Disadvantages in Digital Commerce – and How Inclusive Tech Innovations Could Help
One reason COVID-19 has been so damaging to global micro and small enterprises (MSEs) is that consumers have shifted towards purchasing online – a change that has mainly benefited large corporations. According to Malika Anand at BFA's Catalyst Fund, making digital commerce more inclusive could help these businesses survive and grow in the long term. She shares research from Ghana that highlights several promising opportunities for digital commerce innovations that can benefit informal MSEs.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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The Big Impact of Small Improvements: How Last-Mile Distributors Have Responded to COVID-19 with ‘Incremental Innovation’
Distributing beneficial products in last-mile communities has always been difficult, but COVID-19 has made it much harder, exacerbating many of the challenges that last-mile distributors were already facing. Emma Colenbrander and Gerwin Jansen at the Global Distributors Collective explore innovative solutions to some of these challenges, many of which have tended to be incremental rather than radical.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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