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Kenya’s Mobile Money Use Swells to a Record $50,000 per Minute, $26.1 Billion Annually in 2014
Kenya's 2014 mobile money use surged to a record 26.1 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of about 4 billion dollars from previous year.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mexican Banks Using Mobile Payments Technology to Enable Digital Transactions at Mom-and-Pop Stores
In a bid to increase card payments and financial inclusion, Mexican banks are collaborating with mobile payments technology vendors to deploy mPOS solutions at mom-and-pop stores. The Mexican government encourages these initiatives, as around 70 percent of all purchases in Mexico are made with cash and the informal economy represents 30 percent of GDP.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Twitter Top Ten – 2/15/15
We’ve got plenty of tweets in this "Valentine’s Day Weekend" edition of our Twitter Top Ten. And we’ve even thrown in a holiday-themed tweet just for the occasion - a great example of behavioral science humor (yes, there is such a thing). Beyond that, we’ve got tweets covering everything from the ongoing debate over microcredit to the (hopeful) winding down of an epidemic in this week’s list.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Investing in Airtime: How an unlikely financial innovation is promoting economic security for girls in South Africa
Only 37 percent of women In the developing world have bank accounts, yet research has shown that poor women are inherent savers. Stellar has created an open source payments platform that’s being used to provide a mobile wallet in South Africa focused on promoting savings among girls. The wallet has a unique feature: along with cash deposits, it lets users deposit mobile airtime, and withdraw it later as cash.
- Categories
- Technology
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Viewpoint: Smaller Banks Better Suited for India’s Financial Inclusion Drive; Modi Should Have Waited
There are too many takers for licences for small-sized banks. A total of 113 companies knocked the doors of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with applications when the deadline expired at the close of business hours on 3 February. The list (see here) includes both the biggies and tiny names.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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For MFIs in India, Transition to Small Banks Could Be Arduous
The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to create small finance banks could be a game-changer for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Sub-Saharan Africa’s Mobile Money Market Could Grow to $1.5 Billion by 2019
Sub-Saharan Africa is adopting mobile financial services at a pace seen in few other places, presenting banks and mobile-network operators (MNOs) with a set of strategic choices that will go a long way toward determining their success in the region.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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New Financial Inclusion Innovation in Colombia: Government approves electronic deposits through non-bank entities
Colombia has included financial inclusion as a priority in its national agenda since a very early stage. Last fall, the Colombian Congress took the latest step, passing a law creating a new type of financial institution called Specialized Electronic Deposit and Payment Institutions. The Alliance for Financial Inclusion spoke with a Colombian regulator about the new law.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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