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Why Payment Fraud is a Critical Threat to Financial Inclusion – And How Mojaloop is Making it Worse
The next key step in financial inclusion is payment interoperability, in which digital finance providers’ networks are connected to enable transactions between users of different systems. But though interoperability has major potential for the sector, it also comes with huge risks, says Clear Purchase founder Nick Brown, an expert in payment infrastructure. He explains why a massive payment fraud attack could do substantial and long-lasting damage to the financial inclusion movement, and how an open-source platform like the Gates Foundation's Mojaloop increases the risk.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Two Companies Approved To Run South Sudan’s First Mobile Money Platform, m-Gurush
Theventure is a joint partnership between South Sudan’s Trinity Technologies Limited, a local tech firm, and Zain Telcoms South Sudan.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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MTN, Sanlam Insurtech Partnership May Face Stumbling Blocks
Arthur Goldstuck, founder of World Wide Worx and ICT analyst, points out that with mobile money having failed repeatedly in SA, mobile insurance offers no guarantee of success, in a country with a large number of uninsured populations.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ghana Is Now the Fastest-Growing Mobile Money Market in Africa
Ghana provides a unique case of governmental commitment to create a suitable working environment for innovation.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Orange Eyes Ethiopia Move in Battle for New African Market
Orange SA is considering a bid for a minority stake in Ethiopia’s state-owned phone monopoly as Africa’s second-most populous country prepares to welcome foreign telecommunications investors for the first time.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Front Lines of the Digital Revolution: Reasons for Hope and Caution as India Rides the Fintech Boom
India is now the world's second biggest fintech hub, trailing only the U.S. Its digital payments market is set to grow to US $500 billion by 2020, with its overall digital economy predicted to reach 30% of the country’s GDP by 2025. According to Moin Qazi, this ongoing fintech revolution offers a preview of what global banking may look like a generation from now, delivering vast benefits to both providers and customers. But it isn't free of downsides – for both traditional financial institutions losing their market share to tech-based entrants, and for customers navigating new risks.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Big Challenge, Simple Solution: Could Bookkeeping Take India’s Small Businesses from Good to Great?
Small businesses tend to dream big and start small, but somewhere in the middle they do not grow. According to Vikas Kabra at Menterra, in his interactions with small merchants in India, he's noticed a surprisingly simple obstacle to their growth: a lack of bookkeeping. Out of hundreds of micro-merchants he has interacted with, barely any track their day-to-day business performance. Kabra discusses the problem, and calls for new tech-based solutions that could make bookkeeping fast, easy and approachable for small business owners.
- Categories
- Finance
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Everything Investors Need to Know About the War on Cash
Physical forms of currency -- cash and personal checks -- are losing favor among global consumers to alternative forms of payment, including debit and credit cards, digital wallets, mobile commerce platforms, and, in some circles, even cryptocurrencies.