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Why Omidyar Network is Excited About Technology Stacks for Financial Inclusion
There are a lot of buzzwords out there when it comes to technology, so we try not to get caught up with each new fad. But everywhere we look, we see a concept that promises to be a powerful driver of not only innovation, but also economic progress: technology stacks.
- Categories
- Technology
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Report: Education, employable skills top CSR spends among Indian IT, financial services companies
A majority of information technology (IT) and financial service sector companies in India are investing in education and employable skills, when it comes to the mandatory spend on corporate social responsibility (CSR), says a report by Nasscom Foundation.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Somalia Is a Leader in Mobile Money But Still Wants to Print Its First Cash Notes in 25 Years
The collapse of the Somali government in 1991 saw the rise of unique political, economic and social outfits, all clambering to fill the void of government institutions. One of them was the emergence of a nonconforming monetary system, controlled by warlords and rogue businessmen, who contracted foreign printers and imported counterfeit money. This left the Somali economy in shambles, largely dependent on dollars for trade, and effectively created a freewheeling “economy without state.”
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Brazil’s Creditas Gets $19 Million Amid Boom in Local Fintech Financing
Creditas Soluções Financeiras Ltda, a Brazilian financial technology firm focused on secured consumer loans, has obtained $19 million from investors in a financing round that will allow it to provide borrowers with funds for one-fourth of what they pay to domestic lenders.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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M-Pesa: Kenya’s mobile money success story turns 10
Smartphone payments are gaining ground in the US, but mobile money is old news in Kenya. The majority of the East African country's population is subscribed to a mobile payment service, and the most popular choice is M-Pesa, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in March 2017. M-Pesa -- "pesa" means "money" in Swahili -- has made a dramatic impact over this time.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Grameen America, Citi and Mastercard Collaborate on Financial Inclusion for Female Entrepreneurs
Grameen America, a leading nonprofit microfinance organization, today announced a collaboration with Citi and Mastercard to introduce a number of financial technology solutions that will greatly enhance the organization’s ability to promote digital financial access and inclusion for more than 86,000 low-income minority women entrepreneurs across the United States.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Fewer Than 50 Percent of Global Consumers Trust Businesses to Protect Their Financial and Payments Data
Consumers across the globe are more concerned with protecting their financial and payments information stored on a computer than they are with protecting this data when stored on a mobile wallet, according to new benchmark data, "Global Consumer Survey: Consumer Trust and Security Perceptions," from ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW) and Aite Group. The global fraud study of more than 6,000 consumers across 20 countries revealed that only 43 percent of global consumers trust businesses, including restaurants and merchants, to protect their financial data -- while surprisingly, more than 80 percent of global consumers generally believe their mobile wallet data is secure.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- data, digital payments, fintech
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Safaricom Rejects Regulator’s Surveillance Plan
Kenyan operator Safaricom has expressed its displeasure and hesitation over plans by the industry regulator to monitor mobile phone use, reports Citizen News. This comes after the Communications Authority (CA) announced it would be installing a monitoring device on all operators’ networks to keep an eye on mobile users who may be engaged in illegal activity and curb use of counterfeit phones in the country.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa