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ANALYSIS: Bitcoin vs. M-Pesa: Digital payments innovators battle in Kenya
On 14 December, a high court in Kenya will come to a preliminary decision in a battle between Bitcoin remittance and payments company BitPesa, which is suing Safaricom, the telecom company which operates M-Pesa. Also suing is Lipisha, the payment company that gateways BitPesa and M-Pesa. There's plenty of irony to go round here. Bitcoin and M-Pesa should not be pitted against one another - both are elements of a payments revolution that is happening right now and which will be remembered as one of the great technology success stories of the 21st century.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Microfinance in a Dangerous World
Held in the aftermath of the brutal Paris terrorist attacks, last week's European Microfinance Week conference had a special resonance. But the event also provided a hopeful response to recent grim headlines: it brought a strong focus to the ways the microfinance industry and broader financial inclusion movement can lessen the tensions that drive global conflicts – and how they can help communities recover when natural or man-made disasters strike.
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Cash Transfers in India: Look Before You Leap
The relentless focus on financial inclusion on the deposits side leads to a logical implication that these accounts can be used to transfer money from the government to the targeted recipient, making the action seamless and free from manual intervention. This is the basis of a direct benefit transfer where a wage or pension is transferred to the account without the individual going to the office asking for it. The corollary is the same can be used for other government programmes, ranging from food subsidy to conditional transfers like the mid-day meal programme for children. The examples of Brazil and Mexico have often been given to buttress this argument. How can we evaluate this option?
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Safaricom – MTN Deal Allows Cross-Border Mobile Money Transactions Between Rwanda and Kenya
SAFARICOM has partnered with MTN Rwanda to enable customers to make mobile money transactions between Kenya and Rwanda.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Harvard Business School-Accion Program on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance Is Accepting Applications
The 2016 Harvard Business School – Accion Program on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance is now accepting applications for what will be another exceptional week of learning and exchange among world leaders in financial inclusion. The program will take place March 28 – April 2, 2016 at the HBS campus in Boston, Massachusetts.
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- Uncategorized
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Vodafone India Looks to Double Impact of CSR Programme
Vodafone India wants to double the impact of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Last year, around 50 employees volunteered for CSR initiatives, working for eight weeks at 25 NGOs and impacting about 1 million lives.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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- South Asia
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Are e-Wallets Beginning to Worry Banks in India?
In the last week of October, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma received a message from State Bank of India (SBI). It wasn’t good news. The message said the nation’s largest lender and its associate banks would no longer allow their customers to load money from their accounts onto the Paytm wallet.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Cashless Nigeria: Facilitating the Transition to Digital Payments
The emergence of Nigeria as a regional economic powerhouse has presented a challenge for Nigerian policymakers: How to convert Nigeria’s growth at the macro level into greater financial inclusion, so that the rising economic tide can benefit more people.
- Categories
- Technology
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