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Solar power pay-as-you-go projects in Africa are getting major funding
Services that allow customers to pay for solar equipment and service in small installments have picked up momentum in the past couple of years, particularly in East Africa. Two firms that supply solar power products with pay-as-you-go products have raised a total of $75 million in financing this month to back up that long-held vision.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Crowdfunded Farming: Connecting Investors with Smallholders in Indonesia
Despite the importance of agriculture in Indonesia's economy, smallholder farmers are 2.3 times poorer than the general population – and they have little access to formal financing that could boost their production and income. Because of this, many fall prey to loan sharks and go into debt. To address this vicious cycle, the crowdfunding platform Crowde is helping smallholders connect with investors, who help finance their farms in exchange for profit-sharing. Heri Siswanto discusses the successes – and challenges – of this approach.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Technology
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Two Problems, One Solution: How Fintech is Boosting Access to Banking and Insurance for Domestic Workers in Mexico
More than 2 million domestic workers in Mexico go unseen by the formal financial system – they don't pay into a pension or social security system, and remain unbanked and badly underserved. Mexican fintech startup 4UNO is serving this hard-to-reach segment with an innovative banking and insurance product delivered through their employers. BFA's Gabriela Zapata explains how 4UNO is avoiding the pitfalls traditional financial institutions have faced in working with low-income clients.
- Categories
- Finance, Health Care
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Melinda Gates Launches Initiative to Reduce Poverty With New Technology
Melinda Gates has launched a high-level international commission to spark new thinking on how developing countries can best harness new technologies to reduce poverty. The wife of Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates spoke at the launch of the commission in Nairobi on Thursday.
- Categories
- Technology
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‘We don’t talk about inclusion’ and that’s a problem, says BlackRock’s Larry Fink
"I think the question isn't the financial system but the inclusiveness of the financial system, and we don't talk about that at all," the BlackRock CEO lamented during a panel entitled "Remaking the Future of Global Finance" moderated by CNBC.
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J-PAL North America launches education technology innovation competition
MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) North America has launched a new Education, Technology, and Opportunity Competition that will support U.S. education leaders in identifying effective uses of education technology that can serve as models for how innovation can improve learning.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
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Does Digital Finance Really Address Low-Income Customers’ Needs?
Digital financial services are proliferating across the developing world, yet providers are having trouble coming up with products that meet low-income customers where they live. For instance, for a rural customer, how can a stagnant digital savings account compete with a productive egg-laying hen? Maha Khan and Annabel Schiff, representing the newly formed Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Finance in a Digital Africa, unveil new research exploring how digital financial services can meet people's needs alongside more traditional services.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Expanding Financial Access Means Expanding Security – How ‘Tokenization’ Could Be the Key
When Experian was hacked last fall, the breach exposed the social security numbers of 143 million people in the U.S. Shortly thereafter, in South Africa, approximately 30 million citizens' identity numbers and financial information were hacked and leaked on the internet. As more people in emerging economies are equipped with personal identification numbers for digital financial services, the need for securing sensitive data grows exponentially. Suresh Rajagopalan of FSS touts tokenization as a remedy – and outlines some challenges it presents.
- Categories
- Finance
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