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PRESS RELEASE: India’s Financial Inclusion Leader IFMR HoldingsRaises $25m from Accion, LeapFrog and Lok
IFMR Holdings, a leading financial inclusion platform in India, has announced that they have raised US $25 million in equity from Accion, a financial inclusion pioneer, LeapFrog Investments, a specialist investor in emerging-market financial services, and Lok Capital, an Indian impact investment firm.
- Source
- Accion
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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M-Pesa and the Rise of the Global Mobile Money Market
Most people probably don’t think of Kenya as an innovation and technology hub, but in 2007 it became the launching pad for M-Pesa, a transformativemobile phone-based platform for money transfer and financial services. Since then, M-Pesa has undergone explosive growth: in 2013, a staggering 43 percent of Kenya’s GDP flowed through M-Pesa, with over 237 million person-to-person transactions. M-Pesa is nearly ubiquitous in the daily lives of Kenyans due to a range of services that include money deposit and withdrawal, remittance delivery, bill payment, and microcredit provision.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why Microfinance Loans Have Such High Rates
In recent years, microfinance—distributing small loans to the poor -- has been at the center of an intense debate about the ethics of charging low-income customers high interest rates and then making a profit from them.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Fintech firm takes biometric microfinance tool to Uganda
Awamo, a fintech firm firm formerly known as BCB Biometric Credit Bureau, has revealed that it is taking a biometric microfinance solution it has developed to Uganda thanks to $550,000 it has raised in Series-A funding.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Defining ‘Good Practices’ in Microfinance: Smart Campaign Director Isabelle Barrès addresses the thorny issues of profits and pricing – and discusses its next steps
The Smart Campaign was launched to promote customer protection in microfinance – most notably by certifying the practices of participating MFIs. But critics have taken issue with the profits and pricing of some certified institutions. The campaign's director, Isabelle Barrès, responds to these criticisms, and discusses its next steps, in part two of our Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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An Uphill Climb: Smart Campaign director Isabelle Barrès, on the challenges of promoting client protection in microfinance
The Smart Campaign’s numbers are growing: It has certified 39 microfinance institutions as meeting its client protection standards, and these MFIs now serve slightly more than 20 million clients. But achieving this momentum hasn’t been an easy task for the campaign – or for the industry it’s trying to improve. Smart Campaign director Isabelle Barrès discusses the challenges in part one of this Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Breaking the Myths of Microfinance
A poor woman approaches a microfinance lender along with a couple of her neighbours and friends.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Posta Uganda to Launch Financial Services
Posta Uganda will launch financial services to use its country wide postal networks to promote financial inclusion especially the unbanked rural communities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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