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India’s cash conundrum: how ready is India to go cashless?
When the Indian government invalidated high-value banknotes on the night of 8 November, taking out 86% of the currency in circulation by value, it was supposed to be a war on unaccounted-for and untaxed wealth, counterfeit notes and terror financing.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech, mobile finance
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Social Business Roundup: A New Leader at Rockefeller, a New Investment in Global Health, and a New Mobile Money Frontrunner in India
When Raj Shah left USAID as its administrator in 2015, he went on to form – not a charity, not an NGO – but a private equity fund, Latitude Capital, which invests power and infrastructure projects in emerging markets. Now that he's been named president of the Rockefeller Foundation, what course will Shah chart? We cover that question, and several other intriguing developments, in our social business roundup.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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Indian Prime Minister Modi launches UPI-based mobile payment app
Urging people to make digital payments a "habit" to make the country a cashless economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a mobile app for the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech, mobile finance
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Kenya’s M-Pesa platform is so successful regulators worry it could disrupt the economy
A sizable portion of Kenya’s economy is now deeply ingrained in the platform to levels that are starting to concern officials on the economic consequences in the event of system-wide collapse or compromise.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Opportunity International and MyBucks: A Dangerous Partnership Decision?
Long-time microfinance watchdog Chuck Waterfield expresses serious concerns about the ramifications of Opportunity International's sale of six microfinance banks to the fintech company MyBucks – both for the clients of those banks as well as for the broader microfinance industry. This post, which originally appeared on June 21, was the most popular post on NB that month, and is part of our Most Influential Post of 2016 contest.
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- Uncategorized
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Nigeria planning to create 3 million new jobs by 2025 from digital financial inclusion
Nigeria is planning to create three million jobs by 2025 from digital financial inclusion according to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele. Emefiele said this would be achieved when there is increased adoption of digital financial services, adding that a 90% reduction in the cost of providing financial services is a further goal.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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3 Lessons to Guide Designing Better Financial Tech For The Developing World
On a recent development project in Pakistan, researchers and designers watched closely as a woman picked up a smartphone and opened an app. For someone with a low literacy level, and who had never used a mobile money app, she moved across the screens with surprising ease.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Financial Inclusion Forum: The Technology Revolution
Technology was a recurring theme during the recent Financial Inclusion Forum. Eugene Amusin, chairman of the event, points out that while fintech is an enabler – it can decrease costs, providing new entrants with a competitive edge over incumbents who have legacy systems – there is a risk of new technology looking for problems to solve vs. creating technology to address identified obstacles.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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