Recent Blogs
Mapping Africa’s Latest Innovations in Digital Finance
CGAP received nearly 200 proposals from digital financial services providers across Africa interested in piloting new products. A look at those proposals — from 30 countries — shows that innovations are spreading beyond hot spots like Kenya.
Women’s Financial Empowerment Is the Tide that Can Lift All Boats
Changing gender norms doesn't mean empowering women at the expense of men. When women have a voice in financial decisions, it can benefit the entire household.
Schools in Africa Aren’t Taking Advantage of Mobile Money – Why?
Mobile money can make paying school fees easier and cheaper, so why aren't more schools adopting it? Part of the solution could involve a simple app for inexpensive smartphones and tablets.
Meeting Education Finance Needs in Rural Uganda
In Uganda, CGAP partnered with a solar company to better understand the education finance needs of rural customers and explore how pay-as-you-go solar companies can get into education financing.
Paying for School: 6 Insights for Better Financial Services
The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keeps many children out of school. What is the extent of these challenges, who is affected and what kinds of financial services could help?
Agents for Everyone: Removing Agent Exclusivity in Kenya & Uganda
Mobile money and banking agents blend seamlessly into the daily economic lives of consumers in countries like Kenya and Uganda, offering convenience and expanding access points to financial services. But agent exclusivity clauses can limit customers' choices.
Tugende: Analog Credit on Digital Wheels
In Uganda, Tugende has helped over 3,000 motorcycle taxi drivers on the path to ownership by leveraging new technologies that enable the purchasing of an asset over time. Tugende's success has four key lessons for other digital finance plus initiatives.
Linking Mobile Banking with Village Groups in Uganda
In Uganda, WSBI and PostBank Uganda sought to encourage active individual savings for village group members while simultaneously providing efficiency gains via group lending. The solution? PBU’s low-cost VSLA Group Account, which has reached over 500,000 members.
Achieving Financial Access through Village Banking and Data
In its work towards Universal Financial Access (UFA) by 2020, WSBI is using data to improve understanding of customer behaviors and needs.
New Bill, Big Changes in Digital Financial Services in Uganda
In Uganda, the recently-passed Financial Inclusion Act Amendment Bill provides legal grounds for positive changes in the field of digital financial services, in terms of allowing new business models and greater choice and protection for customers.
The Impact of Shutting Down Mobile Money in Uganda
Citing a threat to national security, the Uganda Communications Commission ordered mobile network operators to disable Uganda's mobile money platforms ahead of February 2016 elections. How were customers, mobile money agents, and other businesses affected by this shutdown?
Digitizing Agricultural Value Chains: How Buyers Drive Uptake
Most companies don’t want to be the first in a sector to try something new and potentially unpopular. Dominant buyers must lead the way to drive large-scale mobile money uptake by smallholder farmers.
Digitizing Agriculture Value Chains: Seasonal Cash Flows
Examining the cash flows of coffee and sugar farmers in Uganda for a CGAP-commissioned project revealed a seasonal cycle that is unsuited to monthly accounting practices. There are many ways that financial services could be designed to assist these farmers.
Lessons from Aggregator-Enabled Digital Payments in Uganda
To understand factors impacting aggregator profitability regarding digital bulk disbursements, we took a close look at a pilot in Uganda, where six USAID funded organizations tested digital payments to end recipients via payment aggregators.
Crowdsourcing at Work: Mapping Financial Access in Uganda
Dynamic, rapidly changing agent networks translate to a need for sophisticate, real-time location data and analysis tools. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is initiating a pilot program in Uganda to crowdsource data on financial services available in Uganda.
Digital Finance and Illiteracy: Four Critical Risks
Illiteracy is still a global problem, and most financial services are not designed for illiterate customers. The Helix Institute is working with financial service providers to help develop products and services that can work better for those who cannot read.
Fraud in Uganda: How Millions Were Lost to Internal Collusion
Kampala’s Anti-Corruption Court is at the epicenter of a major mobile money fraud. The very public nature of this case will hopefully lead to some positive outcomes among industry actors in mobile money markets around the world.
Mobile Money Moves Forward in Uganda Despite Legal Hurdles
Despite unfavorable financial sector laws, Uganda is among the most successful countries in Africa with regards to mobile financial services (MFS).
Don’t Forget the Value Proposition for G2P E-Payment Recipients
Theory indicates that G2P payments can be a gateway to financial inclusion, but behavior on the ground suggests that receiving social cash transfers electronically has not influenced recipients to become e-payment users in general.