-
Understanding Digital Public Infrastructure: What it Means — and Why it Matters — to Businesses and Governments in Emerging Markets
In recent months, there has been an outpouring of media coverage and analysis on the topic of digital public infrastructure (DPI). David Porteous, Priya Vora, Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi and Peter Rabley explore the ongoing efforts to develop a shared understanding of what DPI means, and how it can impact global digital development. They urge DPI stakeholders to look beyond narrow, government-centered use cases and existing digital systems to envision next-generation applications based on public and private sector collaboration.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
-
Viewpoint: Africa Should Not Play Catchup with AI Regulation
If Africa can position itself as an active and influential participant in the global AI landscape, this could lead to a more equitable, ethical, and responsible AI development and deployment across the continent.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
African Development Bank Group Commits $101 Million to Sustainable Water and Sanitation Reforms in Rwanda
The program aims to improve water and sanitation governance and access to basic water supply and sanitation services.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- regulations, sanitation, water
-
KYC is a Journey, Not a Destination: The Value of Know-Your-Customer Innovation for African Tech Startups
Identity theft is increasingly common in Africa, and the problem is likely to get worse. According to Lanre Ogungbe at Identitypass, digital access is expanding rapidly on the continent, and tech startups are under pressure to create frictionless signup processes for new users, which sometimes comes at the expense of better security. He argues that this has created an urgent need for better Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, and explores why tech startups should view KYC not as a regulatory obligation, but rather as an opportunity for innovation that can improve their products, protect their customers and increase their business success.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
-
A Hidden Driver of Financial Inclusion: Why Enabling Regulation is Essential to Fintech Success in Emerging Markets
Fintech innovation is jumpstarting financial inclusion around the world, driven in part by enabling regulation which allows providers to experiment with new approaches. But as Monica Brand Engel, Ganesh Rengaswamy and Jonathan Whittle at Quona Capital explain, it can be difficult for regulators to simultaneously fuel innovation, adapt to new technologies and government mandates, and protect customers. They explore what the fintech sector can learn from successful regulatory approaches in countries like Brazil and India.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
-
The Leapfrog Opportunity in ‘Know Your Customer’ Innovation: Why Africa Needs Local, Digitized KYC Solutions
Know Your Customer (KYC) is a critical process for banks, as it enables them to validate their customers’ identities to fulfill regulatory requirements and protect against fraud. But as Timbo Drayson at OkHi explains, KYC is a big and expensive problem in Africa: For instance, in Nigeria some banks are spending up to $1 million per year to manually verify identities, and 15-30% of customers never complete these processes. He explores three key challenges to KYC in Africa, and presents some tech-driven solutions that could allow the continent to leapfrog to a new global best practice for KYC.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
-
Indian Social Media Site Koo Launches in Nigeria After Twitter Ban
Indian social media and microblogging platform, Koo, has launched in Nigeria just days after the West African country banned Twitter indefinitely following its deletion of a tweet authored by President Muhammadu Buhari.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
The Resilience of Indian Microfinance: Why the Sector Has Successfully Navigated the COVID-19 Pandemic
When a crisis hits a financial system or economy at large, the microfinance sector is usually among the worst impacted, since it caters to the most economically vulnerable segments of the population. As Sudip Bandyopadhyay at Inditrade explains, that's what happened to Indian microfinance when COVID-19 struck — yet the sector has shown remarkable resilience in weathering the pandemic. He explores some effective measures Indian microfinance institutions and policymakers have taken to address these historic challenges.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
Subscribe to Our 'Business in Global Development' Newsletter!
Our new weekly LinkedIn newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with curated news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage of impact-focused business in emerging markets.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.