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A Platform for the Poor: CGAP’s Digital Finance Plus explores how mobile money links the BoP to essential services
Digital financial services have progressed to the point where their benefits extend far beyond the confines of banks or telcos. In this series, organized in cooperation with CGAP, we’ll explore how innovative companies from many sectors are using mobile platforms to deliver services that can make tangible improvements in the lives of the poor.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Health Care
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Making Mobile Money More Effective in Nigeria
A recent survey that showed that 37 per cent of Nigerians are not aware of mobile money and as such, do not use the payment platform, is worrisome. According to the report by Philip Consulting, out of the remaining 63 per cent respondents that knew about mobile money, 31 per cent were between the ages of 26 and 35 and constituted the majority.
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- Uncategorized
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Commercial banks in India increasingly targeting low-income borrowers
At a time when microfinance institutions (MFIs) are getting into the banking business, commercial banks too have developed a liking for lending directly to the poor -- an area until now dominated by traditional MFIs and informal lenders.
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- Uncategorized
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OPINION: Why RBI’s decision on a Post Bank of India is a slap for Finance Ministry
The RBI’s decision on Wednesday to “consider” the application of Department of Posts for a banking license “separately in consultation with the Government of India” is literally a slap in the face for the finance ministry.
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- Uncategorized
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OPINION: The Reserve Bank of India’s welcome conservatism
More than four years after the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the government's intention to issue more banking licences, this has indeed been done. In 2010, there was much fervour about financial inclusion and, against that backdrop, new banks were seen as an important means of boosting capacity and penetration of financial services.
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- Uncategorized
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Reorienting Financial Inclusion in India
Fixing small business finance is a great place to start improving financial inclusion. This is a reform that is overdue and should not wait.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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India Announces First Bank Licences in a Decade
India on Wednesday announced it was issuing two new bank licenses for the first time in a decade as it accelerates a push to bring more Indians into the formal banking system.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Microfinance Can Be…: Month of Microfinance aims to “radically transform” microfinance, bring the focus back to clients
Microfinance was intended to be about clients, and designing products that would meet their financial needs. But in her research on MFIs, Laura Dick found that all too many seemed more interested in their repayment numbers or other institutional goals. The Month of Microfinance was launched, she says, to refocus the sector on the needs of the poor and radically transform it from the inside out.
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- Impact Assessment
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