Recent Blogs
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.
Super Platforms: Connecting Farmers to Markets in Africa
In Africa, super platforms aren't just connecting customers and merchants. They're also connecting farmers to markets.
Client Registration: The Blind Spot in Agricultural Insurance
This agricultural insurance provider tripled its product registration rates in rural Nigeria by improving its registration process.
Financial Innumeracy: A Global Problem for Digital Finance?
Mounting evidence suggests financial innumeracy presents a bigger barrier to financial inclusion than is often acknowledged. Here are three ways to improve numeracy.
It's Time to Slow Digital Credit's Growth in East Africa
New research from Kenya and Tanzania reveals that digital credit is often used for consumption purposes and that delinquency and default rates are high, suggesting funders of digital credit markets should prioritize consumer protection.
A Digital Platform to Manage Out-of-Pocket Health Care Expenses
The M-TIBA mobile health wallet combines savings, remittances and other digital financial services to help low-income customers cover health care expenses.
Building Rural Digital Ecosystems, One Small Payment at a Time
New research shows that digitizing everyday payments as person-to-person transfers can be a sustainable way for providers to reach customers in rural areas.
What Can Traditional Giving Teach Digital Fundraising Platforms?
What can today’s digital fundraising platforms learn from long-held traditions of giving? We spoke with givers in Kenya to find out.