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Zimbabwe is hiking mobile money taxes to plug its fiscal deficit, but it could backfire
In a country with a history of cash shortages, multiple currencies and hyperinflation, mobile money had become a key payment alternative. Cash is hardly ever accessible in Zimbabwe as banks frequently run out of monetary notes, leaving mobile money and bank cards as the only transaction options.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Western Union Makes Digital Push Amid Fierce Competition for Money Transfers
Of the $81.8 billion Western Union consumers transferred in 2017, 91% was sent across international borders. Raj Agrawal, finance chief of the company, estimated that westernunion.com money-transfer revenue—which includes use of the mobile app—last year topped $400 million, or about 11% of consumer revenue.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press release: FINCA Impact Finance, MEF and BlueOrchard Announce USD 20 Million Loan Facility
The three-year revolving loan facility will enhance FIF's ability to manage liquidity throughout its network of 20 banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) and leverage the resources of MEF, an innovative provider of impact capital, and BOMF, the world's first and largest commercial microfinance investment fund.
- Categories
- Investing
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Africa Roundup: Paga goes global and 4 startups raise $99M in VC
Paga looks to go head to head with regional and global payment players, such as PayPal, Alipay, and Safaricom according to Oviosu.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech, startups
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Ahead of Traditional Banking: How Africa Employs Blockchain For Financial Inclusion
On September 27, at the 73rd Session of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio made an announcement where he declared that his country had set a new goal to create a national, blockchain-based credit bureau to “radically transform” the country’s financial inclusion landscape.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: FINCA International and USAID PACE launch FINCA Forward, a fintech innovation platform
Emerging fintech businesses are fundamentally transforming financial services, employing new data analysis solutions and digital delivery systems, in ways that can have substantial outcomes for the world's poor.
- Categories
- Finance
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WorldRemit Offers Free Service For Ethiopian Diaspora In America
WorldRemit, one of the top digital money transfer company, launches a free of charge remittance transfer service for Ethiopian diaspora in the United States.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North America
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Zimbabwe unveils new mobile money tax
Zimbabwe changed the way it taxes mobile money from a fixed fee to a percentage of the value of each transaction, as the state eyes a greater share of the proceeds from use of the burgeoning technology.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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