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Sep 2014
Canadian Government Donates $309m to African Development Fund (ADF)
September, 30 2014
Global - The donation is intended to support the African Development Bank (AfDB), the parent organization of ADF, in supporting development and poverty reduction programs in Africa ...
India: Sidbi Invest Rs 125 Crore Debt in Ujjivan Financial Services
September, 30 2014
India - Small Industries Development Bank of India or Sidbi has invested Rs 125 crore debt capital in Ujjivan Financial Services, the country's fourth largest micro lender ...
Microfinance Struggling to Find its Feet in Middle East
September, 30 2014
Middle East - Curiously perhaps, while microfinance has been a big hit across parts of Asia and South America, its start in the Middle East and North Africa hasn’t been as auspicious ...
Concern as Africa’s Top Five States on Ibrahim Index Let Things Slide
September, 29 2014
Africa - Progress in human development and good governance has dipped in five African countries that have previously been among the continent’s frontrunners, according to the annual Ibrahim index of African governance ...
China: Alibaba Gets Green Light to Open Bank
September, 29 2014
China - Alibaba Group Holding has got approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to set up a commercial bank in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. ...
eBay Founder Backs Venture Fund to Fight Extreme Poverty
September, 28 2014
Global - A charitable foundation set up by Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder, has teamed up with four governments to establish a $200m venture capital fund to support innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries ...
IFC, Eskhata Bank to Expand SME Finance in Tajikistan
September, 28 2014
Tajikistan - IFC’s financing will enable Eskhata Bank to increase lending to SMEs, especially in agriculture and trade, the core sectors of the Tajik economy ...
Microfinance Wholesale Market in Sudan
September, 27 2014
Sudan - Sudan introduces the wholesale lending to MFIs via a governmental agency (Wholesale Guarantee Microfinance Agency, Kafalat) to siphon banks’ wholesale finance to MFIs with 75% risk-sharing at a cost of 0,5% of the total loan via restricted Mudarabah contract ...
Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director, CFI: The Political Economy of Financial Inclusion Policy
September, 25 2014
Global - Many of the players in financial inclusion envision a rich technology-enabled ecosystem in which customers can affordably use electronic means to make payments (inter-operably, of course) and to access savings, credit, and other financial services. However, the experts we talked with, both regulators and providers, do not yet see this vision in reality in any developing country, not even much-hyped Kenya ...
India: Janalakshmi to Lead Investor Rush into Microfinance Sector
September, 25 2014
India - Janalakshmi Financial Services, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) focused on the urban under-served, is expected to lead the rush of private equity (PE) funds into India's microfinance sector, signalling a strong recovery ...
5 Sources of Untapped Innovation in Digital Finance
September, 24 2014
Global - Innovators, often in developed markets, are separately piloting powerful new value propositions for customers building on digital channel attributes. Many of these solutions do not target the poor, but the implications can be easily extrapolated to poor and low-income customers ...
Accion Reaffirms Commitment to Expand Financial Services to Rural Unbanked in Peru Through the Acquisition of a 10 Percent Stake in Credinka
September, 24 2014
Peru - Accion partners with financial group DIVISO, Credinka's majority shareholder, and will support its effort to transform Credinka into the largest rural microfinance bank in Peru. ...
Nigeria: FMO 7.5m Euro Investment in LAPO to Enhance Financial Inclusion
September, 24 2014
Nigeria - Keying into the financial inclusion drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited last week signed an agreement with FMO, the Netherlands Development Finance Company, over a local debt facility to the tune of 7.5 million euro ...
India: How a Microfinance Firm Is Using Big Data and Analytics to Reach the Unbanked Masses
September, 24 2014
India - So, what is unique about this deal other than humungous amount of money involved? It is Big Data and Analytics. Radhakrishna V S, Janalakshmi’s MD and CEO asserts that JFS is the first microfinance firm to use Big Data to make sense of urban banking and get insights into the behavior of unbanked masses ...
China’s Microfinance Landscape: Nonprofits, Microcredit Companies, Rural Financers, and Alibaba
September, 24 2014
China - Albeit a relative newcomer to microfinance, China’s market has grown rapidly in recent years. In 2012 the country had 6,000 microcredit providers, but only 25 percent had been in operation for more than three years ...
Peru to Modernize Agricultural Information System with Support from IDB
September, 23 2014
Peru - The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has announced the approval of a $15 million loan to help Peru improve the quality, reliability and availability of its agricultural information, in a bid to improve farm policies and revenue for rural producers ...
Brunei: Promoting Micro Insurance a Challenge
September, 23 2014
Brunei - Providing insurance for low-income groups is difficult as it’s challenging to find the correct product that suits their needs, a senior monetary official said yesterday ...
Pakistan: Microfinance Landscape - Opening an Account within a Minute
September, 23 2014
Pakistan - If one is to take the CEO of Pakistan’s largest microfinance bank at his word, the extent of financial inclusion in the country is going to expand by leaps and bounds in coming months ...
Anamitra Deb, Senior Manager, Omidyar: It's Time to Listen to the Voice of the Consumer
September, 22 2014
Global - An exciting cadre of innovative and entrepreneurial firms are using advanced data analytics on non-traditional data sources in an attempt to significantly alter the economics of targeting, assessing and extending credit to underserved customers in emerging markets ...
IMF Unveils Global Financial Access Survey
September, 21 2014
Global - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has unveiled the result of its 2014 Financial Access Survey (FAS), which is aimed at mapping the global financial inclusion strategy ...
Kenya: Safaricom, Equity Bank Thin Sim Wars - A Distraction that Should Not Drag On.
September, 20 2014
Kenya - The dispute pitting Safaricom against Equity Bank over the latter’s plans to offer mobile money transfer services is unnecessary and should not be allowed to drag on. The controversy is a distraction at a time when both companies should be investing their time and money on improving their product and services ...
India: PNB Housing to Lend to Women, Self-employed
September, 18 2014
India - According to India’s Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017), the housing shortage in the country is estimated at 58.8 million units. Over 90 per cent of this demand is from low-income households. ...
MasterCard and Bansefi to Drive Financial Inclusion in Mexico
September, 18 2014
Mexico - Most of the Mexicans enrolled in this social disbursement program are women who will, for the first time, be able to deposit funds, receive social benefits, save, or engage in many other financial transactions that are facilitated by electronic payments ...
Ghana: Microfinance Institutions Resolve to Charge COT on Deposits from October
September, 18 2014
Ghana - Clients of Microfinance institutions will from next month be paying cost of transaction charges popularly referred to as COT on their deposits. This is according to the umbrella body, the Ghana association of microfinance companies (GAMC) ...
Kavaljit Singh, Director, Madhyam: India - The Trials of Banking the Unbanked in India
September, 17 2014
India - The success of the JDY should not be measured only on the basis of number of new accounts opened. The measure of success should also include clearly defined targets for usage ...
M. Kopczynski, J. Fripp, K. Early, D. Jeromin, T. Wilkins: Philanthropy and Impact Investing - Stormy Seas, Rocky Shores
September, 17 2014
Global - The middle ground between traditional philanthropic and commercial spaces is a continuum; we need to shift the dialogue from morals to tools. ...
Nigeria: The Many Sides of Cash-less Banking
September, 17 2014
Nigeria - Cash-less banking comes with varied benefits, but grassroots campaign and enlightenment must be sustained to fully tap the opportunities it presents ...
Rwanda: Poor Savings Culture, Lack of Financial Skills Dog Microfinance Sector
September, 17 2014
Rwanda - Lack of financial skills coupled with a poor savings culture could be one of the main reasons non-performing loans in the microfinance industry are going up, sector experts have said ...
India: Cut Rate to Spur Loan Growth - Bankers to RBI
September, 17 2014
India - Amid the banking system’s credit growth slowing to December 2009 levels, lenders have asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut the repo rate, or the rate at which they borrow from the central bank ...
India: Foreign Investors Chasing Bigger Gains by Investing in Microfinance Institutions
September, 17 2014
India - Instead of raising their holdings in companies such as HDFC Bank and IDFC, the infrastructure lender which is turning into a bank, investors are chasing the profitable microfinance institutions ...
Morgan Stanley Adds ‘Impact’ Portfolios in Brokerage
September, 15 2014
Global - The accounts invest with a range of outside managers who either screen to avoid certain companies or actively seek out businesses that have shown success in environmental or social issues ...
Why Don't Small and Medium Businesses Grow?
September, 15 2014
Global - Enter almost any market in Uganda, Nepal or Peru and you are likely to find streets filled with shops all selling the same items, whether it be rows of tire shops, stores selling the same wooden furniture, or shoe shop after shoe shop. It seems that if some of these firms merged to achieve larger scale, they could make more money ...
Amy Bell, Executive Director, JPMorgan Chase's Social Finance: Investing for Impact to 'Save the World'
September, 15 2014
Global - Although there is a lot of enthusiasm for impact investing, and we welcome new investors and issuers into the market every day, impact investing remains a niche activity ...
Ben Thornley and Cathy Clark: To Grow Impact Investing, Focus on Multilingual Leadership
September, 15 2014
Global - September 15, 2014, will be remembered for the release of a seminal report on impact investing, care of an international taskforce backed by eight country advisory boards and four topical working groups ...
Cambodia: Sri Lankan Firm Buys Local MFI
September, 15 2014
Cambodia - US-based investment bank Developing World Markets Asset Management (DWM) has sold the controlling stake in Cambodia’s fifth-largest microfinance institution, Thaneakea Phum Cambodia (TPC) ...
Impact Investing - The Long Haul
September, 14 2014
Global - The launch of a G8 report sheds light on the process of building new financial markets ...
Mobile Money and the Rising Case of Digital Insecurity in Africa
September, 14 2014
Africa - As new technology develops and deploys on the region, developers must also think of including privacy and security safeguards ...
Kenya: Mobile Plan Lifts Equity Stock Value to an All-Time High
September, 14 2014
Kenya - The ambitious Equity, which is laying ground to launch a new mobile money assault, gained 3.6 per cent on Friday with an intra-day trading high of Sh52.50, pushing its valuation to Sh187 billion. Second placed in the banking sector is KCB, valued at Sh171.6 billion, with its share closing at Sh57.50 or Sh15 billion less than Equity ...
Nigeria: The Rise and Rise of Mobile Money
September, 12 2014
Nigeria - Experts believe that if mobile operators are allowed to be in the front seat of mobile money, Nigeria has the mass market to be the leader in mobile money which will lead to an avalanche of technology innovations, job and wealth creation as well as an increase in the contribution of ICT to the GDP. ...
Kenya Takes Lead in Booming African Mobile Money Market
September, 12 2014
Kenya - A recent report by the Central Bank of Kenya shows that mobile money transfer service providers moved close to 2 trillion Kenyan shillings (about $23 billion) via 733 million transactions last year alone. That was up from 579 million transactions worth 1.5 trillion shillings in 2012 ...
Candida Brush, Babson: The Power of Investing in Women Entrepreneurs
September, 11 2014
Global - The data is in! Investing in women entrepreneurs results in new jobs, revenues and contributions to communities, according to our report, Investing in the Power of Women: a Progress Report on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program ...
Ecuador’s ‘Digital Currency’ Explained
September, 11 2014
Ecuador - 40% of Ecuadorian adults don’t have a bank account, but is their new ‘currency’ more about escaping the US dollar ...
Next Generation of Microfinance: Leveraging Indonesian Experience
September, 11 2014
Indonesia - The most important players among microfinance institutions in Indonesia are the commercial banks and the rural banks. These are regarded as representing the best Indonesian experience in the development of microfinance institutions ...
Malaysia Becomes the New Global Center of Financial Inclusion
September, 10 2014
Malaysia - Malaysia’s interest in being associated with financial inclusion policy is not only part of the country’s overall strategy to elevate its visibility on international economic issues, but is also reflective of the shifting balance of economic strength toward emerging economies in global policy making ...
Colombia: High Touch or Low Touch - How to Reach New Microinsurance Customers?
September, 09 2014
Colombia - How can we extend financial products and services, like microinsurance, to low-income consumers at scale? In theory, “low touch” sales and services can reach large numbers of people at low cost. But so far, attempts to enroll new customers without active sales efforts have largely faile ...
India: Bandhan Bank Will Usher in A New Model in Financial Inclusion - CMD
September, 09 2014
India - When Bandhan Bank roll outs its services across the country in October 2015, it will be a bank with a difference ...
Tunisia: EIB, BTK to Provide SMEs Up to 92 Million Dinars
September, 09 2014
Tunisia - Houssein Mouelhi, CEO of BTK said the EIB will make available to BTK a credit line in the amount of 20 million Euros (1 euro = 2,2dt) adding that the BTK will also provide, in turn, an additional 20 million Euros for Tunisian SMEs. ...
Isabelle Cohen, Research Associate: India - Our Interest in Interest Rates
September, 09 2014
India - Last spring, in the context of a broader study on financial inclusion in rural Tamil Nadu, we piloted and compared three different ways of capturing interest rates in a household survey, to try and understand what sorts of questions would elicit the most accurate responses from households ...
Infrastructure Investments Boost Mobile Money in DRC and Ethiopia
September, 09 2014
DR Congo and Ethiopia - A new analysis from Frost & Sullivan titled, Africa Mobile Communications Outlook on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia, finds that the two markets earned revenues of $1.78 billion in 2013 which is expected to reach $3.27 billion by 2018 ...
Zimbabwe: Micro-Finance Institutions Rise Out of the Ashes
September, 08 2014
Zimbabwe - The sector, which was virtually non-existent five years ago, has in the past few years been rising out of the ashes, with the Zamfi membership growing gradually from 95 in 2009 to the existing 153 ...
Monica Middleton, Director, Oikocredit: Microfinance Plus Threatened in Bolivia
September, 08 2014
Bolivia - For hermana Alejandra, microfinance is not a dirty word. She lives in the remote village of Chua Visalaya on the shores of the famous lake Titicaca. She is part of a group of 10 men and women who use a village bank to take out small loans or save money ...
How India Compares on Financial Inclusion Against Other Countries
September, 08 2014
India - The central government’s diktat to open bank accounts for millions of new depositors and give overdrafts to them to push financial inclusion has drawn a lot of flak. But while we may cavil about the choice of method, there’s little doubt that India remains a vastly under-banked country ...
Philippines: BSP Okays 201 New Banking Offices
September, 08 2014
Philippines - In a circular, the central bank approved 101 applications from universal and commercial banks, 54 from thrift banks, and 46 from rural and cooperative banks ...
Nigeria: Increasing Participation in Insurance
September, 08 2014
Nigeria - In recent years, some initiatives have been introduced into the insurance sector, which are geared towards making it to perform optimally and increase its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of the country ...
Zimbabwe: Mobile Banking Accounting for 85% Retail Sales
September, 07 2014
Zimbabwe - Innovation in the mobile telecommunications sector has pushed the frontiers of local mobile commerce (m-commerce), with mobile banking transactions now accounting for more than 85 percent of total retail transactions, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has revealed ...
Pakistan: Branchless Banking - Competition Intensifies with New Entrant
September, 07 2014
Pakistan - An intense competition among telecom companies is forcing them to come up with innovative ideas to attract and keep subscribers hooked to their networks ...
Eastern Europe: EIF, ZABA Cooperate in Financing Micro-Enterprises
September, 05 2014
Eastern Europe - The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Zagrebacka Banka (ZABA) have signed a contract on a guarantee for microfinance based on which ZABA will facilitate access to financing for micro-enterprises, ZABA said on Friday. ...
Nigeria: Micro-Finance Banks Generated N125b in Seven Years
September, 05 2014
Nigeria - The National Association of Micro Finance Banks (NAMB), said its members generated about N125 billion in their operations between 2005 when micro-finance banks were established in the country and 2012 ...
Milan Ridge: Bringing Banking to The Poor - A Job Worth Doing
September, 05 2014
Global - India made headlines last week with its ambitious plan to open bank accounts for every household within 12 months. But India is not the only country with a problem to address: across the world, there is a growing need to pull the “unbanked” – nearly half the world’s adults or 2.5bn people – into the formal financial system ...
Incofin, Triodos Invest in Microfinance Institution (MFI) Arvand of Tajikistan
September, 05 2014
Tajikistan - Incofin executed its investment via its Rural Impulse Fund II, and Triodos invested through the Triodos Microfinance Fund (TMF) and the Triodos Fair Share Fund (TFSF). Neither the portion of the shares taken by each entity nor the price they paid has been disclosed. ...
Nicaragua: Financing Available for Agriculture
September, 05 2014
Nicaragua - Microfinance officials have announced that $55 million will be granted in loans to businesses in the agricultural sector ...
Suresh Krishna, Managing Director, Grameen Financial Services: Reviving Financial Inclusion in the Indian Economy
September, 04 2014
India - The year 2014 seems to be an interesting year for the financial sector in India. Never before has the country seen such elaborate plans for financial inclusion and greater opportunities for microfinance ...
IFC Provides $60 Million to BBVA Paraguay to Expand Access to Finance for Small and Medium Enterprises in Export Sector
September, 04 2014
Paraguay - IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will provide $60 million to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Paraguay S.A., a subsidiary of Grupo BBVA, to expand access to finance for small and medium entrepreneurs in the export sector and to promote trade. ...
William Burckart, Co-founder, Money Management Institute and Impact Economy: Passing the Torch on Impact Investing
September, 03 2014
Global - Efforts both global and local continue to try to make sense of the policy implications of impact investing, attempting to generate an enabling environment that fosters greater activity ...
Cambodia: Loan Growth Ready to Take Off
September, 03 2014
Cambodia - Cambodians are forecast to borrow more than double the amount they are borrowing today from microfinance and commercial banking institutions by the year 2020, according to the latest outlook from the Credit Bureau of Cambodia (CBC) ...
4 Tips to Implementing Effective and Efficient Microfinance Programs
September, 02 2014
Global - Despite being in place for more than 20 years, microfinance has yet to achieve its full potential, some experts suggest ...
David Bank, Impact Alpha: Attracting Elusive HNWIs to Impact Opportunities in India
September, 02 2014
India - Just when many fund managers are throwing up their hands in frustration at the reluctance of affluent individuals to write checks comes a sign that it may indeed be possible to get rich folks to actually commit to impact investing ...
Nigeria: Cash-Less Policy – Glo Blazes Another Trail
September, 02 2014
Nigeria - About two weeks ago, the company unveiled the GloXchange at a special launch in Lagos. TheGloXchange, which is expected to boost the nation’s cashless policy was launched in partnership with three licensed mobile money agents Firstmonie, Ecobank and IBTC ...
Unitus Raises Funds for India from Global Foundations
September, 02 2014
India - Seed-stage impact investor Unitus Seed Fund has raised $7 million in fresh funding from a clutch of institutional and individual investors taking the total fund size to $20 million ...
Nigeria: Africa’s Largest Inclusion Program Begins as Govt Launch New eID Card
September, 02 2014
Nigeria - The official launch of the new national eID card by President Goodluck Jonathan, signals the start of Africa’s largest inclusion program, industry observers have said ...
Pacific Islands: New UNDP/ UNCDF Facility Offers US$ Five Million in Grants
September, 01 2014
Pacific Islands - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) today launched a new funding facility, inviting financial service providers to develop new ways of enabling low-income and rural Pacific Islanders to access affordable savings, insurance, credit and other financial services. ...

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