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Viewpoint: Libra Is an Opportunity to Leapfrog Chinese Fintech to Achieve Cashless Economy
Penetration into offshore markets could accomplish a long-coveted Communist Party goal — replacing the international prominence of the dollar with a yuan-based alternative. If widely adopted, Libra — whose backers include Visa, Mastercard and Paypal — could shut those doors forever.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- cryptocurrency, fintech
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Consortium Releases Technology-Enabled Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Model
The aim of the model is to drive more transparency in global supply chains and encourage sustainable production processes through supply chain finance.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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FairMoney Raises $11 Million in Series a Investment Round to Reshape Nigeria’s Mobile Banking and Institutionalise to Ghana, Kenya, and Egypt
FairMoney, a Paris-based fintech startup, is planning to institutionalise operations in Ghana, Kenya and Egypt.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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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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