Blog

Risk Alert: Development Community Support Needed for Cybersecurity

Here are four things the development community can do to improve cybersecurity as digital financial services expand in developing countries.

E-Commerce Is Taking Off in Rural China: 3 Lessons for Other Countries

China's e-commerce market has $2 trillion in annual sales and is growing as digital services reach rural areas. CGAP visited several villages and spoke with farmers and manufacturers about e-commerce. Here's what we learned.

African Digital Credit Goes West

Digital credit is emerging in West Africa. Despite early reports of low default rates, consumer protection policies will be key to avoiding problems witnessed in East Africa.

Top 10 Blog Posts of 2019

The most widely read blog posts of 2019 cover topics like the impact of financial inclusion, how Kenyans really use M-PESA, and more.

How Are Kenya’s Youth Experiencing the Gig Economy?

The gig economy is on the rise in Africa. What does this mean for youth? In Kenya, CGAP interviewed young people to get their perspectives.

How Fintechs Could Digitize Store Credit in the Arab World

People in the Arab world rely on store credit almost twice as much as people in other regions. Here are three ways fintechs could digitize this type of credit.

Last-Mile Agent Networks: Why Public-Private Partnerships Matter

Building out rural agent networks isn’t just about harnessing digital innovations. Global experience shows that it’s also about the public and private sectors working together.

Digital Finance and the Future of Competition Policy

As tech giants disrupt financial services, they are giving urgency to questions around competition policy. Here are five questions that policy makers in developing countries should be asking about how to ensure fair play.

Deposit Insurance: The Last Line of Defense for E-Money?

Should deposit insurance cover e-money? The answer may not be the same for every country, but here are two lessons that apply across markets.

Zoona Is Putting APIs at the Core of Its Business: Here’s Why

What began as a side project has become central to Zoona's plans for growth. In this blog post, Zoona executives Brett Magrath and Bridgid Thomson discuss the importance of APIs at the company.

Smart Phones, Smart Partners: Linking Asset Finance and Microfinance

One company offers microcredit. The other offers PAYGo financing for smartphones, tablets and solar home systems. In what may be a template for other microfinance institutions, they are helping each other to reach more low-income customers.

A Vision for Collaborative Customer ID Verification in Africa

Technology has the capacity to improve financial inclusion in Africa, but this value can be unlocked only if African leaders reduce the burden of customer ID checks.

Bringing Digital Finance Agents to the Last Mile in Indonesia

A recent CGAP publication identifies six principles for viable agent networks in rural areas. In this post, we look at how where Indonesia stands against these principles.

BTPN Wow! Using Open APIs to Bring E-Commerce to Its 250,000 Agents

By connecting its agents to e-commerce platforms, BTPN is giving agents and end-customers in Indonesia more reasons to use its mobile banking service.

Mapping Fintech Innovations in the Arab World

Where is fintech innovation happening in the Arab world? What types of solutions are emerging? CGAP shares preliminary results from our research on fintech in a region with roughly 140 million financially excluded adults.

Open Data and the Future of Banking

Although growing numbers of low-income people are entering the formal financial system, many are not yet leveraging its full value. Emerging regimes for data sharing and payments flexibility have the potential to bypass traditional financial sector development and give poor customers better products and more choices.

The Path to Financial Health Begins in Adolescence

It is critical that youth financial inclusion programs tailor interventions based on young people's life stage to achieve long-term impact on financial health.

Where Youth Join Trust Groups, Not Insurgency Groups

By providing a combination of financial and nonfinancial services to over 16,000 smallholders, a social enterprise in northern Nigeria is harnessing the power of agriculture to create jobs for youth and improve livelihoods.

4 Keys to a Successful Developer Portal for Digital Finance APIs

Here are some practical tips on how digital financial services providers can build a first-rate developer portal for their APIs.

Former PAYGo CFO: Smart Subsidies Can Scale Energy Financing

Well-designed subsidies could create a stronger foundation for the solar home system industry and enable it to reach more low-income customers, according to entrepreneur and former PAYGo executive Joshua Romisher.