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Financial Inclusion Takes the Next Step: An Interview with MetLife Foundation President Dennis White
As NextBillion launches our new Financial Health site under the sponsorship of MetLife Foundation, we touched base with its president and CEO, Dennis White. In this wide-ranging interview, White discusses the evolution of the financial inclusion movement, and the work the foundation is doing to advance it – including its grant-making and investing approach, its ongoing challenges, and what it has learned from both success and failure, among other issues.
- Categories
- Finance
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Bank cards show resilience in Kenya despite mobile money dominance
Mobile money has for the last years stifled the growth of plastic money, with many pointing to the death of the cards but new data from Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) showed Wednesday that the latter is in Kenya to stay, the onslaught notwithstanding.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Five countries to watch for e-payments
A study shows that 34% of Europeans and 38% of Americans would be willing to go cash-free if they could, Reuters reported. In Asia, China is an early adopter of digital payments, with 95% of Chinese using smartphones and mobile wallets to pay for goods and services.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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How Digitizing Agricultural Input Payments in Rural Kenya is Tackling Poverty: The Case of One Acre Fund
Since 2014, OAF has enabled farmers in Kenya to make loan repayments digitally using the mobile money service M-Pesa instead of in cash, increasing economic opportunity and financial inclusion in some of the world’s poorest farming communities.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Digital Toolkit to Give Tanzania Smallholder Farmers Access to Finance, Farm Supplies and Training
The digital toolkit will allow farmers to gradually pre-pay for the inputs they need via mobile money, at discounted prices. It will also provide them with a customized inputs package based on their crop and production goals, and deliver mobile-phone based farming advice to ensure the best use of those inputs.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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State Bank of Pakistan approves launch of the country’s first free mobile wallet service
Mobile payment app SimSim became Pakistan’s first free mobile wallet service after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) approved the official launch of the service – a move the company said would boost financial inclusion in the country.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Reserve Bank of India allows co-operative banks to issue mobile wallets
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed co-operative banks, who are permitted to install ATMs and issue debit cards, to also issue prepaid payment instruments PPIs like mobile wallets.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- mobile finance
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Four Ways Digital Finance Can Prepare for the Next Wave of Mobile Money Disruption
The mobile money and agent banking markets of the developing world are due for disruption, so digital finance providers should start preparing. A new research paper from the Helix Institute of Digital Finance offers tips on preparing for the new wave, plus some advice: Focus on data, "the common denominator and foundation for all financial technology companies."
- Categories
- Technology
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