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Bank of Zimbabwe Launches $50 Million Fund to Support Smallholder Farmers, Rural Development
Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Governor Michael Gondwe has launched a US$50 million Fund under the MasterCard Foundation’s Fund to support smallholder farmers in the rural areas.
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- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Twitter Top Ten – 1-25-15
It was an eventful week in global development - it almost always is. But this week featured a number of particularly important developments, ranging from Bill and Melinda Gates’ trend-shaping annual letter, to some significant new research on microcredit’s impact on poverty. These developments are featured - along with cute rats and an inspiring student - in our weekly top 10 list.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Eight Tech and Policy Trends That Will Impact Financial Inclusion This Year
The use of digital financial services will continue to be one of the main drivers for financial inclusion in 2015, says John Owens of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). He discusses eight interesting trends AFI has noted - both on the technology and policy sides - that should have a direct impact on advancing financial inclusion through digital means this year.
- Categories
- Technology
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Nigerian Smart Card Plant Supports Expansion of Financial Services to Poor
Responding to banks’ efforts to reach out to people who do not typically use financial services, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan this week inaugurated the first Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) certified smart card manufacturing plant in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bill and Melinda Gates Want to Fix Another Messy Global Problem: Banking
Bill and Melinda Gates have taken on some of the world’s messiest problems, funding projects to improve the design of toilets and condoms and even create urine-powered fuel cells. Now, in their annual letter published today, they’re outlining ambitions to tackle another messy sector: banking.
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- Uncategorized
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Opinion: Does the GSMA Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers Go Far Enough to Protect Consumers?
The recently launched GSM Association Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers is a welcome initiative. There is increasing recognition of the economic benefits that digital financial services can bring, along with an understanding that achieving ambitious financial inclusion targets may well depend on their rapid rollout. Such targets are being proposed by the World Bank, under the Maya Declaration and in other forums.
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- Uncategorized
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PRESS RELEASE: AfDB and Mastercard Seek to Broaden Financial Inclusion in Africa Through Digital Finance
On Thursday, January 22 in Davos, Switzerland, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and MasterCard announced a broad collaboration that aims to expand financial inclusion across the African continent. The collaboration seeks to develop solutions that drive inclusive growth in Africa by broadening access and usage of digital financial services.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Announcing NextBillion’s Latest E-book (and the first from NextBillion Financial Innovation): A compilation of posts and videos from our Impact Investing Insights series
In the spring of 2014, NextBillion Financial Innovation videotaped interviews with 11 top investors, academics and advocates working in impact investing. We published the Q&As in a series called Impact Investing Insights. We have compiled the posts and videos into this e-book, which covers a broad cross-section of the topics and trends that drive the sector today.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise