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A Devil’s Bargain to Bank the Unbanked: Why Financial Inclusion Advocates Shouldn’t Trust Facebook’s Libra
As you've likely heard, Facebook has entered the inclusive finance arena, pitching Libra, a global cryptocurrency – ostensibly to promote financial inclusion. But as Digital Equity co-founder Valerie Khan argues, there are plenty of reasons to doubt Facebook's intentions and Libra's “social good” marketing campaign. In fact, she says, "Facebook is not being transparent about its real interest in Libra" – and both financial inclusion advocates and emerging countries should beware.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Making Technical Assistance Work in Africa: Three Keys to Success for Financial Services Providers
It’s not easy delivering data-driven financial services to financially excluded customers in Africa. That’s why technical assistance can be essential to these financial service providers' success. Dumisani Dube at Insight2Impact (i2i) explores the technical assistance programs that i2i provided to seven financial service providers across the continent, and shares what worked – and what didn't.
- Categories
- Finance
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Nubank Fintech Grows Client Base By 25 Percent Since August
The largest FinTech startup in Latin America — Brazil’s Nubank — is reporting a 25 percent increase in the number of clients since August, Reuters reported on Friday (Oct. 11).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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Viewpoint: How Aadhaar Bill Will Benefit Startups and the Fintech Segment
With the all-new Aadhaar Bill, the startup ecosystem has breathed a massive sigh of relief.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Nigeria Is Finally Turning to Telcos to Drive Financial Inclusion Through Mobile Money
Financial inclusion in East Africa has been significantly impacted by the wide adoption of mobile money services—led by Kenya— but the uptake has been slow in Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Airtel and Mastercard Expand Digital Banking Services Across 14 African Countries
Telecoms and mobile money services provider, Airtel Africa announced that it is partnering with Mastercard to give over 100 million Airtel Africa mobile phone users across 14 African countries access to Mastercard’s global network.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Latin America
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Malawi Scraps 1% Withholding Tax on Mobile-Money Transactions
The mobile tax drew criticism from Telekom Networks Malawi Plc, the country’s biggest phone operator.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Building The ‘Super App’ For The African Market
Tingg is taking a layered approach to the market, catering to different customers and business segments. Bill payment is a starting point, but the services on offer are relevant to banking, eCommerce, hospitality, food, travel, logistics and agriculture. In short, anywhere funds need to flow, Tingg aims to be the hub that makes it possible – and from as many locations as possible.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital finance, fintech
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