-
‘Her Hands Trembled’ When She Borrowed Her First $64; Now She’s Giving Advice to BRAC
BRAC, which has been gradually integrating mobile money into its microfinance operations since 2011, has introduced a number of new initiatives, including investing heavily in client protection, customer service and financial education, and developing mobile money use cases. Here, as part of FI2020 Week's spotlight on keeping clients first in a digital world, a long-time client gives her perspective on this evolution.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Seattle Accelerator Capria Boosts Fund Managers in Emerging Nations
A housecleaner-on-demand service in Cape Town, South Africa, has created 400 jobs and plans to keep growing across the African continent. A young gourmet tea business in Johannesburg is bringing high-end drinks to customers while supporting small, local farmers.
- Categories
- Investing
-
German Lender MyBucks Eyes Kenya Banking Licence in Race for Clients
German micro-lender, MyBucks, is eyeing a deposit-taking licence from the Central Bank of Kenya in a bid to grow its local clientele base.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Myanmar Startup Takes on Moneylenders With Short-Term Microfinance Loan Options
Debt is a huge problem in Myanmar. Data is scarce, but in many poor communities on the outskirts of Yangon experts believe the majority of households are in debt.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Microfinance boom catches attention of private banks in India
Private banks are making acquisitions or buying stake in MFIs to tap their growing customer base, retail lending potential.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Mobile Money Meets Microcredit: Three Key Decisions in Taking a Concept from Design to Pilot
SAJIDA Foundation in Bangladesh is using evidence from data analytics, business case analysis and client research to improve cross-selling as part of the OPTIX project. Three key evidence-based programmatic decisions were necessary to take a new mobile financial service-based microfinance initiative from the design table to being piloted in the field.
- Categories
- Finance
-
Microfinance: Your Inflexible Friend
ON A shelf in Buland Iqbal’s tiny roadside shop, cassette tapes are slowly turning pale in the sun. Nobody wants them these days, even in a dusty suburb in one of India’s poorest states. So Mr Iqbal has branched out. First he moved into renting DVDs, then, more boldly, into pay-television. A loan of 31,000 rupees ($465) from Sonata, a microfinance firm, helped him acquire a few satellite dishes and decoder boxes. It seems like a clear-cut success for microlending. In fact, Mr Iqbal’s loan illustrates why microlending does not work all that well, and how it needs to change.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- fintech, microfinance
-
Asian Development Bank partners with Citi to provide US$100 million for microfinance in Asia
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has entered into an agreement with Citi to expand local currency lending to the microfinance sector under the Microfinance Risk Participation and Guarantee Program.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.