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Microlending Goes Digital, Piling Debt on Millions
In Kenya, Africa’s financial-technology pioneer, there are now more people keeping money on their phones than in banks. Almost one-fifth of mobile-banking borrowers there defaulted last year – like Barasa, who has failed to pay three separate loans.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Responsible Investing: PE impact investors should target SMEs in Southeast Asia
There is a concentration of investments in a few sectors such as financial services and energy. Agriculture and micro-SMEs are two areas with high potential in the region.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Kiva’s Crowdfunding Platform Transforms Into Hub for Impact Investing and Financial Inclusion
“One of the things that goes unnoticed about Kiva is our quiet but continued pursuit of the impact being achieved,” says Premal Shah, who until 2018 was president and the only remaining cofounder still with Kiva. “This is hard to do and hard to measure. But it is critical.”
- Categories
- Finance
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Empowering Female Entrepreneurs: Solutions to Five Key Barriers to Women’s Financial Inclusion
In developing countries, only 59% of women have a bank account – an issue VisionFund is addressing through its Women’s Empowerment Fund. But though the fund has supported thousands of female-led businesses, it has also faced persistent challenges – many of which are unique to women. Johanna Ryan, VisionFund's Global Director of Impact, discusses five obstacles the fund has encountered, and how they've responded.
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Asian Development Bank Approves $25M Loan to Support Women-Led SMEs
Access to finance is very limited in Pakistan, with only 21.3% of adults and only 7% of women over the age of 15 having bank accounts in fiscal year 2017, according to available data.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- financial inclusion, microfinance, MSMEs, SME finance, SMEs, Women
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Microfinance Is Driving Many Sri Lankan Borrowers to Despair
Nalani Wickremesinghe, from Baduraliya in the south, has taken loans from 11 companies, only two of which are registered with the central bank. Struggling to feed her family, she has little option but to borrow again.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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National Bank of Cambodia Slams NGOs’ Lending Report
A report on predatory lending in Cambodia by local human rights NGOs Licadho and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), was slammed by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) as “flawed”.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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‘Financial Innovation’ is no Frankenstein: How Impact Investors and Inclusive Finance Innovators Are Redefining the Term
For many, the words "financial innovation" spark memories of the banking malfeasance that led to the 2008 financial crisis. But as Paul Hailey at responsAbility Investments sees it, financial innovation has come a long way since then. He argues that innovative new investment products don't have to be "a monster lurching towards the village," and explores how they can enable both financial inclusion and investor returns.
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