Searching: Blogs

Has Fintech Closed the Credit Gap? Not by a Long Shot

If funders want to spur job creation and economic growth, they’ll need to close the credit gap for small businesses in emerging markets. But to do this, they can’t depend solely on fintech.

Sports Betting: Highway to Hell or On-Ramp to Digital Finance?

Sports betting is pervasive in Africa. What impact is it having on how youth use digital financial services?

3 Principles for Funders of Youth Financial Inclusion

How can donors promote financial inclusion in a way that creates jobs for youth? Here are three guiding principles, based on the Mastercard Foundation's experience in Africa.

Reaching the Next Generation of Financial Services Customers in Africa

A growing body of evidence shows young people's potential as users of financial services in Africa.

How Do Kenyans Really Use M-PESA?

Transaction data shows mobile money agents are more like petrol stations than barber shops, with few customers showing loyalty to particular agents.

6 Strategies to Promote Digital Financial Product Adoption Among Youth

Here are six insights about how to make financial services appeal to young people, coming out of a digital savings pilot in Tanzania.

Youth in Agriculture: A New Generation Leverages Technology

Digital financial services can help young people see a future in agriculture.

Beyond Regulations: What’s Driving Mobile Money in Côte d’Ivoire?

Regulations helped spur the recent growth of mobile money in Côte d'Ivoire, but there's more to the story.

Expanding the Horizons of Pay-as-You-Go Solar

As PAYGo solar companies seek to expand into new and challenging markets, they will need to lower their costs and improve repayment rates.

Regulations Drive Success of Digital Finance in Côte d’Ivoire

The year 2015 marked a turning point for financial inclusion in Côte d'Ivoire, as nonbanks were allowed to issue e-money. Since then, mobile money has driven big increases in account ownership.

These Emerging Fintech Innovations Are Centered on Poor Customers

After two years of piloting with 18 fintechs around the world, CGAP has identified several fintech innovations that advance financial inclusion.

PAYGo Solar Opens Pathways to Microfinance in Rural Senegal

A microfinance institution and pay-as-you-go solar company have teamed up to expand rural, low-income customers' access to microfinance based on their solar loan repayment histories.

We Need to Talk About Credit

Digital credit is a testament to the ways in which technology and new business models can assist in the expansion of financial services to low-income households. But it also points to potential hazards of letting a market develop unchecked.

8 Lessons from Using a Messaging Platform to Support Digital Payments

Here are eight insights on how to use messaging platforms to increase financial literacy among smallholders.

Understanding Côte d’Ivoire’s Financially Excluded Women

Women are 45 percent less likely than men in Côte d’Ivoire to have a mobile money account. Low mobile phone ownership and financial innumeracy remain major barriers.

Teller to Techie: Empowering All Employees to Act on Customer Insights

Sometimes the employees who don’t interact with customers have the greatest impact on the customer experience. Making it easier for all employees to act on customer insights can help companies grow while advancing financial inclusion.

MTN Uganda Opens Up Mobile Money APIs

Uganda's largest telco just opened APIs that enable local developers to build apps that leverage its popular mobile money platform. Here are some lessons learned from MTN Uganda's open APIs journey so far.

Digital Credit Helping to Put Kids in Classrooms in Cote d'Ivoire

By partnering with farmers’ cooperatives to offer an innovative digital credit product, Advans is seeing high repayment rates and having an impact on school attendance in rural Cote d'Ivoire.

How Regulators Can Foster More Responsible Digital Credit

Regulators can help ensure digital credit helps, rather than harms, poor customers by taking these steps.

Where Do We PAYGo from Here? PAYGo Beyond Solar

Pay-as-you-go financing is increasing poor people’s access to life-changing assets beyond home solar systems, from solar-powered water pumps to smartphones.