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New GSMA Report Finds That Latin America and the Caribbean Have Fastest Growth in Mobile Financial Services Globally
At the Mobile 360 Latin America event today, the GSMA issued the report, ‘Mobile Financial Services in Latin America and the Caribbean: state of play, commercial models and regulatory approaches’, which examines the current state of mobile financial services across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. The report outlines important advances in mobile money adoption in the region, showing that nearly two thirds of markets have at least one live mobile money service. Today, there are a total of 37 mobile money services, accounting for roughly 14.9 million registered mobile money accounts, in 19 countries1 in the region. This includes seven new services launched in Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama and Peru since 2014.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Funding a Sector in Transition: Recent RCTs could reshape donors’ approach to microcredit
After a group of six studies published in January found that its benefits are modest at best, microcredit is stuck at a crossroads, says Matt Mossman. But as debate continues amongst practitioners about how to react to the new data, the findings could spark changes in the funding landscape for the sector.
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- Education
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Kenya’s Mobile Finance Revolution Takes the Next Steps: Two new developments go far beyond mobile money
Kenya’s mobile finance market is evolving, and for the country’s leading financial services players, that evolution has been a profitable one. But beyond M-PESA’s remarkable payments revolution and the continued growth of M-Shwari’s mobile banking services, there are two other important developments in the Kenyan market. MicroSave founder Graham Wright discusses their impact.
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- Uncategorized
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Vodafone’s M-Pesa Mobile Money Service Goes Live in Albania
Vodafone Albania officially launched the M-Pesa mobile payment service during a press conference held in the capital Tirana. Vodafone Albania is the second Vodafone operator in Europe to offer the service, following Vodafone Romania in April 2014.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Viewpoint: Contributory Social Security Schemes Launched Last Week in India Could Be Game Changers
The prime minister launched three welfare-enhancing pension and insurance schemes on May 9. In a country where less than 10 per cent of the population has insurance cover and almost nobody in the unorganised sector has a pension plan, these three schemes are expected to play a significant role in providing social security for the poor.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Financial Inclusion in Africa: “Things Are Further Behind Than People Think”
Plenty of progress has been made on increasing the size of Africa’s banked population. The trouble is, from the amount of noise that is made about the topic, you would be forgiven for thinking we had fixed the problem when we really haven’t.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: India’s Financial Inclusion Schemes Are Fine, but Why Is the Government Not Addressing Banks’ Quality, Cost Concerns?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team at the NDA government deserve their due share of credit for initiating efforts to bring a large segment of India’s population to insurance, pension cover at cheaper cost, even as the Congress is crying foul of repacking old UPA ideas.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Relief Through Finance: How microfinance builds resilience to disasters and crises
After a natural disaster or other crisis, like Nepal’s recent earthquake, the relief and aid community inevitably plays a major role. But according to Sam Mendelson, there is also a vital role for microfinance, which can help restore livelihoods and provide resilience to vulnerable populations thanks to existing relationships with clients that foreign NGOs lack.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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