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RADIANT YACU of Rwanda Wins European Microfinance Award 2025
"RADIANT YACU’s model bundles affordable hospital cash and funeral cover with microfinance services, leveraging group structures to make enrolment simple and premiums sustainable."
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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BII and BlueOrchard Launch $250 Million Climate Fund for Insurers
The fund will primarily provide senior loans to banks, microfinance providers and other intermediaries offering climate finance to small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance
- Region
- Global
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Global Partnerships Announces Maturity of 6th Impact Investment Fund
The 10-year Social Investment Fund 6.0 demonstrated the power of impact-first investing strategies for addressing poverty in Africa and Latin America
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Swedfund Boosts Financial Access in Southern Africa With $15 Million Loan to Select Africa
The investment aims to enhance access to credit for low-income individuals who are often excluded from traditional banking systems.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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SACCOs, Social Collateral and Bitcoin Communities: A Filmmaker Documents New (and Old) Ways to Extend Financial Inclusion Past the Limits of Fintech
Luke Willms worked at an African NGO, where he was tasked with creating short videos to showcase the positive impacts of its microcredit program. But as the video project progressed, his assumptions about the effectiveness of microfinance began to unravel. He would spend the next seven years filming stories from across Africa and other regions, exploring whether microlending still held relevance in a rapidly changing world. The resulting documentary, “Unbankable,” was released last year, with the goal of helping to reframe the global conversation around financial inclusion. He shares key stories from the movie, which show how Africa’s informal, trust-based financial systems offer models of resilience and adaptation that could find new applications in other emerging countries.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Bangladesh Bank to Launch Instant Payment Platform with Gates Foundation Support
If successful, the initiative could be a turning point for Bangladesh’s financial sector - reducing costs, improving transparency, etc.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Japanese VCs Launch USD $20 Million Early-Stage Startup Fund for Africa & MENA
The fund will invest in four key sectors: finance, mobility, distribution, and sustainability. Furthermore, it will focus on areas such as mobile payments, microlending, digital retail, logistics, and agri-tech.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Miller Center Capital Supports Altitud to Expand Economic Opportunities for Women in Mexico
For more than a decade, Altitud has provided affordable credit to women who are starting sewing enterprises, which is often their first step toward financial independence.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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