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Overthrowing the King: Could Central Bank Digital Currencies Replace Cash in Post-COVID-19 Africa?
Despite advances in digital technology, cash has remained the undisputed king of payments in sub-Saharan Africa. However, as Michaella Allen and Christine Hougaard at Cenfri explain, COVID-19 has placed a stigma on cash and led governments across the region to actively encourage digital payments. They explore the implications of this shift, and whether it could make central bank digital currencies a viable alternative.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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Press Release: Careem, Visa, Sign Partnership to Accelerate Cashless Payments and Digital Financial Inclusion Across MENA
Visa push payment services will be available on the Careem Pay Super App for Captains to make low-cost money transfers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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BigPay’s Remittance Service Achieves Record Growth
BigPay’s remittance service has grown at an average of 35 per cent month-on-month since its launch in September 2019 and it now looking to open up more corridors across the Asian region.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Why It’s Time for Africa to Adopt a Regional Digital Financial Identity
Over 1 billion people globally lack any form of officially recognized identification. According to Nkosinathi Ncube at FinMark Trust, this is a significant obstacle to financial inclusion and other development efforts – but overcoming it is no easy task. He explores some of the challenges to expanding access to formal identity in Africa, and explains why an effective solution will require regional action.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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COVID-19 Pushes Rural Myanmar Towards Moneylenders
Desperate for cash and low on work, rural households are turning to high-interest loans from informal moneylenders as microfinance companies are forced to cut back on credit.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Bangladesh Faces a Crisis in Remittances Amid COVID-19
The economic importance of the more than 10 million migrants from Bangladesh who sent close to $18 billion in 2019 cannot be overstated. International remittances normally represent around 7% of Bangladesh’s GDP. But the COVID-19 pandemic is having an acute effect on Bangladeshi migrants abroad, who are largely concentrated in countries with strict lockdown measures. Considering the large volume of Bangladeshi migrants in the Middle East, secondary economic impacts through depressed demand and falling oil prices will also likely add strain to the flow of remittances.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Amid COVID Crisis, an Appeal to Facilitate Migrant Remittances
More than 200 million migrants across the globe send remittances to their home countries, many of them on the African continent, and that means some 800 million family members depend on them.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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COVID-19 Has Squeezed Migrants’ Remittances to Their Families
A new report highlights the potential gains from digitisation
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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