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Driving Financial Inclusion at 4G Speed
Base-of-the-pyramid financial services providers in emerging markets are increasingly using data analytics to pioneer new products for reaching the unbanked. Alifinance in China is using the underlying transaction data of vendors on the giant online platform Alibaba to underwrite small business loans. M-Shwari in Kenya leverages M-Pesa's mobile money data for short-term, unsecured credit. Cignifi analyzes cell phone usage to provide credit as well as savings propensity scores. Lenddo uses online social network data for credit risk assessment. Similarly, a number of companies including Tiaxa and MODE use cell phone data to extend immediate nano-credits to prepaid customers who run out of airtime balances.
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- Technology
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African Mobile Device Pioneer Mi-Fone Opens Up on Strategy
Alpesh Patel, CEO of African mobile player Mi-Fone, said that its strategy for the region is based on “aspiration within reach”, arguing that “you’ve got to be realistic about the consumers’ pockets”.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Twitter Sunday
Ah spring (at least in this hemisphere). The snow has melted, the buds are starting to open and the birds are chirping. So are the Twitter birds, of course. Here are a few good eggs from the week that we’ve gathered into our nest.
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- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup – The BoP Beer Business
SABMiller wants to sell more beer to Africans, wants to source much more agricultural inputs from African farmers, and wants to generate much, much more revenue in Africa. The company forecasts it will grow revenue by 10 percent over the next three to five years in Africa. To achieve that goal it will use differentiated pricing to attract low-income customers across Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Social Enterprises On the Rise
A prudent man holds on to the old as long as it is good, and grabs hold of the new as soon as it is better; so goes an old adage. It's time to let go of the old and discredited handout and hand-me-down charity approach, and take hold instead of the hand-up approach to community and nation-building practised by social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. There are two outstanding men among us who are at the forefront of grabbing hold of this new paradigm; one from the public sector and the other from the private sector.
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- Uncategorized
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Rwanda: New Strategies Needed to Attract Small Savers to Invest in Shares
It had been a 'bad' trading year. The balance sheet was deep in the negative, following heavy investment in restructuring, rebranding and repositioning.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – Counterintuitive Ideas are the Right Answer for Sustainable Enterprises
We often assume low-income communities will purchase a product or service simply because we think they would need it for more comfortable, better lives – just as we would. However, we rarely give enough importance to the social codes, the priorities, the calculations and mental process behind the actual decision-making.
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- Uncategorized
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Press Release: Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and HelpAge Int’l Report – Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity
Today, the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI) and HelpAge International released Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity, a report that examines the unmet financial needs of the rapidly growing global aging population, particularly in the developing world. The purpose of this report is to highlight the barriers and opportunities related to financial services in older age and throughout the aging process, a relatively neglected area of study.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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