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Yunus Was Right — Credit is Indeed a Human Right, and Savings is Important Too: Why the Microfinance Sector Must Avoid the ‘Circular Firing Squad’ and Promote Multiple Approaches to Financial Inclusion
Alex Counts, financial inclusion pioneer and founder of Grameen Foundation, took issue with Jeffrey Ashe’s recent NextBillion article, “Yunus Was Wrong—Savings, Not Credit, is a Human Right.” He argues that, instead of seeing the world through an “either/or” lens, the financial inclusion sector should embrace multiple tools, including credit, savings, insurance and more — and he urges today's changemakers to avoid promoting one social innovation at the expense of others.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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MFast Gets Backing from Wavemaker Partners to Increase Financial Services Access in Vietnam
MFast announced it has raised $6 million in its Series A funding round, led by Wavemaker Partners.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Goldman Sachs-Backed Digital Bank Starling to Expand in Hotly Competitive Asia-Pacific Market
Starling, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, is in talks with an Asian bank about launching its Engine banking-as-a-service platform in the Asia-Pacific market.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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The Coca-Cola Foundation to Support Under-Represented Entrepreneurs
Kiva assists people who do not have access to commercial bank services to lenders through crowdfunding microfinance.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance, WASH
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: IFC and IIFL Home Finance Ltd. Partner to Boost Women’s Access to Affordable Housing Finance, Promote Green Homes in India
New funding will help increase access to housing finance among economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income groups (LIG), including women borrowers in India.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Zanifu Raises $11.2 Million to Scale Its Inventory Financing Offering in Kenya
The fintech provides inventory credit to retailers, and the new funding will enable it to expand the solution to distributors too.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- distribution, financial inclusion, fintech, lending, MSMEs, scale, startups
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Mastercard Strive India Launches to Help Small Businesses Go Digital
Payments giant Mastercard has launched the Mastercard Strive India programme, which aims to help 500,000 small businesses in India go digital by 2025.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Paymentology and Mastercard Join Forces to Foster Financial Inclusion in Northern Central America
Mastercard has committed to bringing 5 million people and 1 million micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the digital economy.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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