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Revisiting our Assumptions About Digital Financial Inclusion: Three Unexpected Findings from BFA’s FIBR Project
When BFA launched its FIBR (Financial Inclusion on Business Runways) R&D project four years ago, it outlined a set of assumptions about how smartphones, increased connectivity and digitization would help to accelerate financial inclusion for small businesses in Africa. As the project wraps up, BFA Founder and Chair David Porteous explores which of those assumptions still hold – and which need to be reassessed as unanticipated developments have reshaped the market.
- Categories
- Finance
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Online Banking Still a Reserve for the Rich in Kenya – Survey
People in higher income brackets use their phones to obtain more information on products and services before purchase, and across all income brackets, users regularly keep track of their online fund balances.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Building Financial Stability: Can Liquid Savings Help Recession-Proof the Economy?
Though the U.S. economy is experiencing a historic expansion, stock market jitters and other recent developments have some economists predicting a recession. And according to Mariel Beasley at Common Cents Lab and Timothy Flacke at Commonwealth, cracks have been forming beneath the surface of the economy for a long time. They explore the surprising financial insecurity facing American households, and explain why short-term, liquid savings could help mitigate the effects of a future recession before it begins.
- Categories
- Finance
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Viewpoint: Ghana’s Banks May Find Themselves Undercut by MTN’s Mobile Money
MTN Ghana is targeting 20m customers on its mobile money service in the next three years, from 13m in 2018.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Arohan in Talks With Sovereign Wealth Funds, PEs to Raise $200M
Arohan plans to complete the fundraise in the next few months, and is in discussions with sovereign wealth funds.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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The Evolution of Inclusive Finance Data: What’s Next for MIX
Since 2002, MIX has been a key resource for global inclusive finance data. Its initial focus was to build transparency in microfinance through shared data standards and common metrics, and it compiled a huge dataset, MIX Market, that became a critical source of information for the industry. But MIX recently announced two important shifts to its approach. CEO Camilla Nestor discusses these changes, and what they mean for MIX and the inclusive finance industry.
- Categories
- Finance
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Zimbabwe’s EcoCash Woes Show Dangers of Early Reliance on Mobile Money
The growth of EcoCash was driven by its ability to extend financial inclusion by drawing in previously unbanked customers. But recurrent power blackouts and food shortages in the context of a currency crisis are now showing the fragility of that model.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India Post Payments Bank Rolls out Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Services
With AePS services, any person with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can perform basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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