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Indian Banks to ensure minimum remuneration to business correspondents
Over 220,000 BCs had been appointed by banks after the RBI pushed this as a cost-effective way of extending banking services to the unbanked villages
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
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World Bank Group Commits US$ 5 Billion to Boost Electricity Generation in Six African Countries
The World Bank Group today committed $5 billion in new technical and financial support for energy projects in six African countries-- Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania—which have partnered with President Obama’s Power Africa initiative.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Three Steps to Jumpstart Mobile Finance: Step 1 – Researching smallholders’ financial behavior to help them transition to mobile payments
It’s becoming increasingly clear that cash payment schemes are obsolete in the 21st century, says Lee Babcock. And in agriculture, there’s a growing recognition that enabling digital payments to smallholders is a huge opportunity, both for farmers and the mobile finance sector. In this three-part series, Babcock lays out three steps for embedding mobile money into agriculture development at the BoP.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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3 Startups Offer New ‘Microloan’ Options for Entrepreneurs With Big Ambitions
In the United States, a whopping 543,000 new businesses are launched each month. Sadly, half of all start-ups aren’t able to keep their doors open for more than five years. The failure of many small businesses is due, in large part, to lack of funding.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Social Enterprises Raise Money Through Direct Public Offerings
Looks like there’s a growing interest among social enterprises in a capital-raising method called Direct Public Offering (DPO).
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Mobile Money Grows In Africa But Hurdles Remain
Industry players say a fragmented and tough regulatory environment is holding the mobile money industry back.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – Financial Inclusion and the Internet of Things: How Smart Machines Can Benefit the Poor
The Internet of Things refers to the use of technology to automate data transfer between objects via the Internet. It’s billed as a disruptive technology of the next decade, with applications that range from home automation to wearable fitness devices. But it also has great potential to benefit the poor, by enabling payment mechanisms that let the underbanked access basic products and services.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology, Telecommunications
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What Vodacom has learned from M-PESA’s initial failure in South Africa
Following a disastrous South African launch in 2010, Vodacom has redesigned and re launched m-pesa, the mobile money service that has transformed the Kenyan economy. ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK considers its chances of success.
- Categories
- Telecommunications, Uncategorized
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