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Wall St. Journal Financial Inclusion Challenge Seeks Innovative Enterprises – Application Deadline Feb. 23
Financial instability plagues millions of Americans. Many cannot pay their monthly bills and have no retirement savings or no idea how to manage what they do have. The Wall Street Journal has launched a Financial Inclusion Challenge aimed at both nonprofits and for-profit organizations who have socially impactful solutions to the problems of low- and moderate-income people in the U.S. The deadline for entry is Feb. 23.
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Is Mobile Money Killing Off the Group Microfinance Model (And Would That Be Such a Bad Thing)?
SAJIDA Foundation, an NGO and microfinance provider in Bangladesh, recently took the bold step of going cashless. But shifting to mobile money meant the end of group meetings – the locus of traditional microcredit for decades. The NGO was betting on clients embracing this new approach, but after the initial rollout, it noted some troubling downsides along with the expected benefits. Ashirul Amin of BFA explores the pros and cons SAJIDA has encountered in its cashless journey, and how it is responding with a hybrid method that blends old and new.
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- Finance, Impact Assessment