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lly posted on NextBillion.org. By Scott Anderson. Want to see just how fast financial inclusion is spreading? Just map it. The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, an arm of the G20 concerned with the expanse of financial inclusion for non-G20 nations, recently released a very illustrative map that colors in the advance of bank branches, individual, and small and medium sized business accounts and...
Financial Inclusion The global poor already prefer savings to loans, but add in an additional monetary incentive to save and piggy banks begin to fill even faster. After years of hype about microlending being the key to upward economic mobility for the world’s poor, relying on simple savings may seem like a set-back. But savings can be a debt-free way to build wealth, make investments, and better...
Global remittances are on the rise. Now, coupled with mobile technology, cross-border payments are even more effective at spurring poverty alleviation, but women may lag behind. Officially recorded global remittance flows to developing countries were estimated by the World Bank to have reached $406 billion in 2012, with Kenya accounting for $1.2 billion, a 31.4 percent increase from 2011. The magnitude...
Groups fighting for financial inclusion and youth employment united in Morocco. Will their findings promote progress? Youth face economic concerns across the globe, but statistics are particularly disturbing in the Middle East and North Africa. In the MENA region, according to the Global Findex, youth have both the lowest rates of access to financial services, as well as the highest rates of unemployment...
A unique “bundled” mobile service is changing the way smallholder farmers conduct business. A new Mercy Corps program, dubbed “Agri-Fin Mobile” (“agriculture” plus “financial” services), is helping rural farmers in Indonesia, Uganda and Zimbabwe increase their crop yields, boost their food security, and enhance their economic prospects. Launched in July of 2012 with...
Bima, a young Swedish microinsurance company, is using mobile phones to sell as many as three billion new insurance policies to the global poor. Cheap insurance in developing countries is needed, but because many low-income people live in isolated regions, closing sales remains difficult. Bima, who has begun to access this untapped market, is now one of the largest mobile insurance platforms in the...
