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Driving Financial Inclusion at 4G Speed
Base-of-the-pyramid financial services providers in emerging markets are increasingly using data analytics to pioneer new products for reaching the unbanked. Alifinance in China is using the underlying transaction data of vendors on the giant online platform Alibaba to underwrite small business loans. M-Shwari in Kenya leverages M-Pesa's mobile money data for short-term, unsecured credit. Cignifi analyzes cell phone usage to provide credit as well as savings propensity scores. Lenddo uses online social network data for credit risk assessment. Similarly, a number of companies including Tiaxa and MODE use cell phone data to extend immediate nano-credits to prepaid customers who run out of airtime balances.
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- Technology
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NexThought Monday – It’s a Small World, After All?: Financial Diaries research reveals that the financial lives of low-income families in Kenya and the U.S. aren’t so different
In countries from Bangladesh, India and South Africa to Kenya and the United States, Financial Diaries studies have tracked the daily financial transactions of low-income people over time. The leaders of the Kenya Financial Diaries project compare their findings to a similar study in the U.S.
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- Education
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Saving Lives By Making Malaria Drugs More Affordable
Forty percent of all malaria-caused deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occur in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. The private sector "supply chain" manages 74% of the drug volume in Congo and 98% in Nigeria where malaria-stricken patients rely on "drug shops" and other for-profit retail outlets to get life-saving medicine.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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10 Impact Investors in India That You Should Know
Out of the total 1.3 billion population in India, around 80 per cent are living in poverty. There are some companies in India — both in the tech and no-tech segments — helping this large segment to address various problems related to irrigation, lending, travel, education, etc., by providing cost-effective solutions. These impact ventures are getting financial assistance in the form of grants or funds from various investment firms, called Impact investors.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Could Your Facebook Profile Get You a Mortgage?
In the developing world, using people's social graph to determine creditworthiness is opening up billions of new people to the benefits of credit—and a chance at the middle class.
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Calling All Innovations in Financial Capability: A new FI2020 project needs to hear about you
The Center for Financial Inclusion is investigating innovations that help customers gain greater financial capability. If you’ve seen or been associated with any new or new use of a delivery mechanism, product design, program idea or process that might fit the bill, CFI wants to hear from you.
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Cellphones for Women in Developing Nations Aid Ascent From Poverty
Here is what life is like for a woman with no bank account in a developing country. She keeps her savings hidden — in pots, under mattresses, in fields. She constantly worries about thieves. She may even worry about her husband taking cash she has budgeted for their children’s needs. Sending money to a family member in another village is risky and can take days. Obtaining a loan in an emergency is often impossible.
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- Technology
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Indian Prime Minister Modi Asks Reserve Bank to Prepare 20-Year Financial Inclusion Roadmap
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked the Reserve Bank of India to prepare a 20-year roadmap for deepening financial inclusion in the country.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia