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Bamboo Finance Announces the First Close of Financial Inclusion Fund II
Bamboo Finance, a private equity firm specializing in investing in business models that benefit low-income communities in growth markets, today announced the first close of $31 million in its second financial inclusion focused fund with investments from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF) and AXA-IM.
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- Uncategorized
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‘By making it available to people, you are almost by definition doing good’: Grameen Foundation CEO Alex Counts, on microfinance’s past and future
Microfinance has careened from hero to villain status over the years, before settling into its current persona as a useful but not transformative anti-poverty tool. Alex Counts has had a front-row seat in the sector’s turbulent development, as founder and long-time president/CEO of Grameen Foundation. He shares his frank perspectives on microfinance’s past and future in this video Q&A.
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- Impact Assessment
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The Avoidance Factor: Research in Indonesia reveals unique behavioral obstacles to microinsurance take-up
The nature of insurance is that it protects against unexpected, unpleasant events that people prefer not to think about. But human nature leads people to prioritize their expenses based on the needs that are top of mind. A recent survey in Indonesia revealed that this dynamic can be a factor in the low take-up of insurance. Nick Thornton discusses the research, and offers some solutions.
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- Education
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National Commission to Issue Electronic Identity Cards to Six Million Nigerian MFI Members to Boost Financial Inclusion
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is collaborating with the Association of Non-bank Micro Finance Institutions of Nigeria (ANMFIN) to register its six million members into the national identity management system and issue them electronic identity card for effective financial inclusion.
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- Uncategorized
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Coming of Age: Institutional Investors See Investment Merit in India’s Non-Banking Finance Companies and MFIs
Institutional investors in the debt market are gradually gaining confidence about looking beyond traditional government and highly-rated corporate debt to bonds and other debt instruments issued by non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs). NBFCs and MFIs are also helping create this new market, either by issuing debentures or pooling their debt assets.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: Mudra Bank Is Just What India’s Microfinance Sector Needed
Mudra Bank can provide some cohesion and impetus to this fragmented space, besides the right kind of regulation.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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- microfinance
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Study: Only 2.8 Percent of Nigerian Adults Have Microfinance Accounts
Despite the huge numbers of Microfinance Banks, MFBs, operating in the country and regulatory authorities’ efforts to use them as channels for financial inclusion, investigations have confirmed that only 2.6 million of the adult population had MFB accounts.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Making it Easier to Go Digital: Lowering barriers to entry for pro-poor financial institutions in Uganda
In December 2014 Airtel Uganda launched a mobile banking service to allow bank customers to access their accounts through mobile money agents. These services allow pro-poor financial institutions to reach rural Ugandans, but forging these digital connections is complex. In the third post in their series on what it takes for microfinance institutions to go digital, Grameen Foundation explores ways to overcome this complexity.
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