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The Dark Side of Financial Inclusion: Financial services companies in South Africa are monetizing financial illiteracy
The recently released findings of the 2013 FinScope survey highlight a significant increase in adoption of formal financial products in South Africa. On the face of it, this is good news - access to these products can help people live more financially secure and sustainable lives. But a closer look at the data reveals a more disturbing picture.
- Categories
- Education
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Tweeting to Better Financial Products : What USAID learned in its pilot project to harness real-time data to improve entrepreneur loans.
To gain a better understanding of the digital footprint of loan beneficiaries, USAID interviewed a small sample group about their usage of various digital tools, and asked them about the terms they use when talking about accessing loans.
he agency then used those terms and keywords to build filters to monitor social media chatter about financial inclusion, and deployed monitors through Twitter and Google search trends.- Categories
- Technology
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Rwanda targeting 80% financial inclusion by 2017
In order to achieve the country’s economic transformation and poverty reduction, Rwanda has set its goal on increasing financial inclusion to 80 percent by 2017, through deepening and broadening the financial literacy of Rwandans.
- Categories
- Education
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The Double Bottom Line of Microfinance Must Become a Triplet: Why MFI performance measurement needs a gender lens
According to the Microfinance Information Exchange, 74 percent of MFIs claim to target women, and just over half declare women’s empowerment or gender equality as an objective. Yet gender has not been recognized as one of the pillars of MFI performance. Women’s World Banking makes the case that all MFI performance measurement must have a gender lens.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Ghana: Banks Struggle to Mobilize Savings, as MFIs Take Deep Bite
The reserves of commercial banks in the country have been on consistent decline since the first quarter of the year following a sharp increase in the withdrawal of deposits and saving by their customers.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Incofin Investment Management endorses need for agricultural finance by launching new $200 million agRIF fund
Incofin Investment Management (IM) is seeking to raise around USD 200 million for its new agRIF fund which will focus on the unmet global demand for financial services that target smallholder farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Small Farms, Big Funding Gap: Local bank financing for smallholder farmers meets only 3 percent of overall demand
New research reveals that local bank lending to smallholder farmers – which should be a main avenue for improving their access to finance – meets less than 3 percent of their estimated financing demand. This gap represents an obstacle to global poverty reduction efforts - and a compelling opportunity for buyers, lenders and other actors in the agricultural value chain.
- Categories
- Agriculture