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Bank-Led Digital Finance: Who’s Really Leading?

In countries where regulators favor “bank-led” digital finance models, nonbanks are playing important – even dominant – roles in digital finance.

What Can We Learn from Sierra Leone’s New Regulatory Sandbox?

Sierra Leone's approach to setting up a regulatory sandbox for financial inclusion holds important lessons for other countries.

East African Interoperability: Dispatches from the Home of M-Pesa

Kenyans can now send money between the country's two largest digital wallet services, Airtel and M-Pesa, the latest step toward interoperability in East Africa.

Kenya’s Rules on Mobile Money Price Transparency Are Paying Off

Kenya's pricing transparency rules have made customers more aware of the costs of using certain digital financial services, according to a new CGAP survey.

Can Agro-Dealers Be the Last-Mile Rails for Digital Finance?

New CGAP partnerships test large agribusinesses' potential to bring financial services to millions of rural farmers.

Who’s Getting Financial Inclusion Funding in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Funding for financial inclusion in Africa has reached $4.7 billion, up 270 percent over the past several years. So which countries are getting the most funding? And are these investments making a difference?

Kenya’s Digital Credit Revolution Five Years On

It's been five years since Kenya launched its first digital credit solution. A new CGAP survey shows that one in four Kenyans has taken a digital loan, mostly for working capital and day-to-day consumption.

5 Insights into Credit Scoring for Smallholders

Agricultural lending remains a frontier area even as the alternative lending space fills up with new players. Here are some early insights from CGAP's work on alternative credit scoring for smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Building Rural Digital Ecosystems: A New Role for Agribusinesses?

Bringing digital finance to the rural poor will require financial services providers to work more creatively with agribusinesses that have extensive experience serving last-mile clients.

Pay-as-You-Drink: Digital Finance and Smart Water Service

A pilot in Ghana is showing that the pay-as-you-go solar model can be adapted to change how water is delivered to poor customers.

Super Platforms in Africa: Not if, but When

Super platforms like Ant Financial are likely to expand into Africa and impact financial services providers, regulators and customers.

Helping or Hurting? 10 Facts About Digital Credit in Tanzania

A nationally representative phone survey shows who's using digital credit, how they're using it, and whether it's living up to the hype of helping families cope with emergencies.

FinTech Partnerships: Choose Carefully, Then Evolve

FinTech startups in developing markets are leveraging partnerships to reach customers as diverse as women's savings groups, dairy cooperatives and smallholder farmers.

FinTech for the Poor: Not All Virtual, Not All Apps

FinTech isn't always about rolling out a dazzling new smartphone app. In places where USSD phones are the norm, it means something quite different.

Can Uganda Reduce Financial Exclusion to 5% in 5 Years?

Here's what you need to know about Uganda's new financial inclusion strategy, which aims to cut financial exclusion from 15 to 5 percent by 2022.

A Digital Finance Prescription for Universal Health Coverage

Digital finance is just beginning to realize its potential in the health care sector. Take a look at some early examples of how digital financial services are contributing to the goal of universal health coverage.

Better Regulations Can Spur Agent Banking in WAEMU

Regulations in the West African Economic and Monetary Union have enabled mobile money providers to double their agent networks since 2014, while restricting banks and microfinance institutions. Better regulations would create a level playing field and expand financial inclusion.

Who Are Kenya’s Financially Excluded?

In Kenya, where nearly everyone knows about mobile money and a majority live within walking distance of an agent, why do nearly 2 in 10 adults lack access to formal financial services? And what can be done to reach them?

Keeping the Lights On: Repayment Challenges in PAYGo Solar

Research in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania reveals some of the top reasons pay-as-you-go solar borrowers stop repaying their loans.

Making Digital Payments Work for Low-Income Farmers

From hurling sacks of money out of planes to transporting cash in armored cars, the methods used to pay farmers in Uganda can be unsafe and inefficient. So why haven't digital payments taken off?