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India: Ujjivan Financial Gets Sebi Clearance for IPO
February, 29 2016
India - The company, which had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi on December 31 for launching the IPO, obtained clearance from the regulator on February 25 according to the latest update
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Jordan: '$100m Kuwait Fund Loan Will Be Used to Finance SMEs'
February, 29 2016
Jordan - The loan comes after the government's success in the management of the first World Bank loan of $70 million and the first AFESD loan of $50 million, which both benefited more than 11,000 projects and led to generating 2,600 jobs by the end of 2015
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India: ESAF Microfin Plans to Raise R100 Crore via Rights Issue
February, 27 2016
India - Chairman and managing director K Paul Thomas told FE that the capital will be raised in the next two weeks. All existing investors, including SIDBI Venture Capital, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), are expected to subscribe to the rights issue
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Solving Payments Interoperability for Universal Financial Access
February, 25 2016
Global - Getting payment products to “understand” each other, or to be “interoperable,” is a big challenge to solve if we want to expand overall digital services and financially include the 2 billion people worldwide who are currently excluded from the formal financial system.
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N.Ahmed: Is More Funding the Answer to Pakistan's Struggling Microfinance Sector?
February, 25 2016
Pakistan - There is a growing desire within Pakistan to expand its microfinance sector and innovate. Since the 1990s, however, the country’s attempts to blend commercial and development models (pdf) to tackle poverty, the gender gap and unemployment have struggled against a backdrop of financial and political instability
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India: NBFCs Condition Remains Subdued Amid Stringent Norms from RBI
February, 25 2016
India - NBFCs have largely been able to hold their own against headwinds such as high inflation, tight liquidity and more stringent norms from the Reserve Bank of India. In the decade ending 2015, NBFCs' share of credit went up from 10 per cent to 13 per cent and this growth is likely to accelerate further over the next decade
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The "Bank of Bill Gates" Enters a New Era
February, 23 2016
Global - Bill Gates doesn’t like to dither. Just seven years after his philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founded an organisation committed to the financial inclusion of the world’s 2.5bn unbanked people, it now stands on its own, independent of any government and self-reliant for core funding
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Tanzania: Keeping Money at Home Still Common
February, 23 2016
Tanzania - Despite increased number of financial institutions, their penetrations in rural area has remained low with most people continuing to hide their money in boxes and mattresses
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Standard Chartered Bank: Digital Africa
February, 22 2016
Africa - While Africa has some unique characteristics that enhance the value proposition for mobile money solutions, some of the successes that have already been achieved, and those that are underway, form a blueprint for other regions.
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India: PM's Inclusion Dream Unrealised
February, 20 2016
India - The speed of adding accounts, as IndiaSpend reported earlier, was outpacing the delivery of benefits, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan, in 2014, cautioned banks against focussing on numbers alone
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Bangladesh: Digital Transaction under Big Expansion Plan
February, 17 2016
Bangladesh - In a massive step, the government is going to expand digitalisation of financial transaction across the country and take it beyond the banking system. With the initiative implemented, the people who are now excluded in the current system can also enjoy making electronic payment or transaction while buying a service or a product.
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Indonesia: Rate Caps Counterproductive
February, 17 2016
Indonesia - Imposing Interest rate ceilings would undermine the ability of these lending institutions to cover their costs. Many would be driven out of business and even those surviving will struggle. The poor, who are the recipients of microfinance, would be the losers.
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What Impact Investors Can Learn from the Microfinance Industry
February, 17 2016
Global - Substitute the word “impact” for “social performance,” and current debates in the investment community sound exactly like the ones the microfinance industry had 10 years ago. The investor community can learn from microfinance’s successful efforts to set standards for non-financial returns—the “other bottom line.”
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Cambodia: IFC Provides US$50 Million Financing Package to Amret Microfinance
February, 17 2016
Cambodia - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a US$50 million financing package to Amret Co., a leading microfinance institution, to help the company increase lending to smaller businesses, especially those in the agriculture sector and rural areas, said a press release made public this afternoon
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Philippines: Agency Banking - Bringing Financial Services to Rural Areas
February, 15 2016
Philippines - Technology can now turn everyone into a bank. Not a banker, but an actual bank. That is the promise of agency banking. Also known as branchless banking, it is the latest in a long line of tech-enabled innovations that have been sweeping through developing countries.
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Bangladesh: Solar Cells Help Purify Water in Developing Countries
February, 15 2016
Bangladesh - Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a water purification plant that provides clean water far beyond the reach of the electrical grid -- thanks to solar cells. With the help of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus, these small and portable solar cell stations have now been placed across rural Bangladesh
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Microensure to Become Africa’s Largest Insurance Business with AXA Investment
February, 14 2016
Africa - One of the world’s leading insurance companies, AXA has increased its stake at Microensure, a mobile micro-insurance service provider by 46 percent to develop offerings encompassing Life & Savings, Health, Property & Casualty insurance as well as Assistance to tomorrow’s emerging middle class
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Zimbabwe: RBZ Approves Adoption of Agent Banking
February, 11 2016
Zimbabwe - The Reserve Bank has approved the adoption of agent banking by financial institutions as part of efforts to increase access to financial services, governor Dr John Mangudya said
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EBRD, Bank Audi Ink $30 Million Deal to Boost SMEs in Egypt
February, 11 2016
Egypt - Although SMEs represent the majority of active private enterprises in Egypt and contribute 75 percent of total employment, access to finance remains a key concern and resolving this issue has become a top priority for the authorities
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Rise of Middle Class Undermined in East Europe & Central Asia
February, 11 2016
Eastern Europe & Central Asia - “In many ways, the story in this region is different from what is happening in other parts of the world. The share of people living on $10 and $50 dollars per day has actually increased in most of these countries”,(as against a poverty line of less than 1.25 dollar a day), said Cihan Sultanoğlu, the Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States
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Malawi: New Business Registration Systems to Boost SMEs
February, 05 2016
Malawi - Government yesterday launched a modern online collateral registry system, a move that has done away with fixed assets as the only collateral for loans. This means that small scale traders who are mostly women will now access loans using property such as livestock, machinery, and vehicles
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India: Moving a Billion People into Digital Finance
February, 04 2016
India - Digital finance has great potential to improve life for consumers and merchants in India. But the lack of familiarity has impeded digital money’s growth in the country. This lack of awareness exists despite India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national mission for financial inclusion
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India: Social/Impact Venture Firms Invest US$95mn over 53 Deals in 2015
February, 03 2016
India - Social/ Impact Venture Firms invested about US$95mn over 53 deals in India during the twelve months ended December 2015, according to data from Venture Intelligence, India’s longest serving research service focused on private company financials, transactions and valuations
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New CEO-led Consortium to Drive Sustainability in India’s Housing Sector
February, 03 2016
India - IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is convening a voluntary, collaborative effort with leading Indian housing sector companies to form an industry-led Sustainable Housing Leadership Consortium to drive sustainability in India's housing market with a particular focus on the affordable housing sector.
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Competition Could Lift South African Growth and Boost Poverty Alleviation
February, 02 2016
South Africa - In times of weak growth and limited fiscal resources government policies that promote greater domestic competition and improve the regulatory environment could lift growth and support poverty alleviation, says the South Africa Economic Update released by the World Bank today
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IFC Survey Reveals Key Constraints to Doing Business in Kyrgyzstan
February, 02 2016
Kyrgyzstan - While it is fairly easy to enter the Kyrgyz market and register a company, operating a business and doing it effectively is much less so. A transparent and predictable legal environment is critical to encouraging investment, and the Kyrgyz government should continue to simplify and streamline regulations, specifically in the areas of permits and licensing, the report says
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