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“Recovery lending” helps disaster-stricken African farmers get back on track
Accessing credit has long been a major hurdle for small-scale farmers in Africa, who produce some 70 percent of the continent’s food. Not only does this mean yields fall far below their full potential, but the ability of farmers to manage the increasingly frequent and severe weather shocks brought about by climate change is also greatly reduced.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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Enhancing Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs – What Should Financial Institutions Do?
IFC determined that 70 percent of women entrepreneurs are un(der)served and face a USD $300 billion annual credit deficit. Anup Singh and Christine Wanjiru Gachui of MicroSave make the case for banks extending credit to women, who end up being roughly twice as profitable for them as men.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Fintech firm Payworld focuses on insurance, loans for growth
Payworld, a nine-year old fintech firm, provides digital transaction services like mobile recharge, e-payment, railway reservation and remittances facilities.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech, insurance, lending
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Want to Boost Financial Inclusion? Pay Interest on Mobile Money
E-money has been the principal means of increasing access to financial inclusion. Yet most accounts in emerging markets are used only to receive government payments that are then quickly withdrawn as cash. Ross P. Buckley, Louise Malady and Cheng-Yun Tsang say that one way to tackle this problem, and to promote financial inclusion, is to pay interest on e-money.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Mars launches Farmer Income Lab to help eradicate smallholder poverty
The Farmer Income Lab will commission research and generate discussion to develop measurable frameworks and new business models to significantly reduce farmer poverty.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Nigeria: 10 Microfinance Banks Account for 40 Percent of Industry Loan
THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said the ten microfinance banks account for 40 percent of total loans in the subsector.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Q&A: Batten professor helps launch World Refugee Fund
Mahoney, also the director of Social Entrepreneurship at the University and author of “Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced,” co-founded the Alight Fund with her husband as a for-profit investment fund to support refugee and host community entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- lending, microfinance, refugees
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Making Microcredit Charities Better
While supporting women entrepreneurs is commendable, no data suggest that lending to women—or men, for that matter—is a miracle poverty cure. That’s primarily because lenders commonly charge the poor about 25% for loans. Six randomized studies of microlending programs from 2003 to 2012, published in the American Economic Journal, found no correlation with improved welfare. Although the loans can be helpful in some situations, there’s no evidence of a transformational effect.
- Categories
- Uncategorized