Group items tagged

Nigeria’s leading digital financial services company, Carbon in an effort to improve the experience of its customers, has launched Carbon Express – A keyboard extension that allows customers to access Carbon services from within whatever app they are using.

We briefly examine some literature that challenges the received view on the overall value of microfinance and consider some implications for Kiva and conclude by noting that in the current market, Kiva will need to draw on its corporate history of innovation if it hopes to maintain its position of leadership in the face of new organizations like Acumen Fund and One Acre Fund that take different routes to the same goal of reducing poverty.

Azimo is a payment processing company that provides internet and mobile-based inter-country consumer money transfer services. Its solution allows users to send and request money domestically or across borders using a phone number.

Tailored Insurance For Almond FarmersWe have applied our argonomic modeling expertise to develop a specialty product focused on protecting almond growers against increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. Either as an alternative or supplement to your existing insurance, CropAssure Almond provides easy to understand policies, and pays out automatically when your covered risks occur.

Takyi-Appiah says he saw opportunity in the fact that customers had to wait for days and queue up to obtain remittances sent to banks. Foreign expansion soon followed, and Zeepay now counts Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe as its second- and third-largest markets.

Ghana’s Zeepay plans to raise $10m in equity funding to support the creation of new mobile-money hubs in East and Southern Africa, Andrew Takyi-Appiah, co-founder and managing director, tells The Africa Report. The new hubs, which will include processing centres and back offices, are likely to be in Rwanda and South Africa, says Takyi-Appiah from Accra. He adds that the use of Swahili in Rwanda makes it a good platform from which to reach out to other markets in the region.

The Kenyan government's announcement of a new 10 percent tax in March 2013 threatened the future prospects of M-Pesa, Safaricom's mobile money transfer service, which had revolutionized the way money moved in Kenya. The new tax would be levied on all cash transfers but was largely targeted at M-Pesa, which controlled around 80 percent of the cash transfer market.

The Kenyan government's announcement of a new 10 percent tax in March 2013 threatened the future prospects of M-Pesa, Safaricom's mobile money transfer service, which had revolutionized the way money moved in Kenya.

The Kenyan government's announcement of a new 10 percent tax in March 2013 threatened the future prospects of M-Pesa, Safaricom's mobile money transfer service, which had revolutionized the way money moved in Kenya

Mobile phones, which have been adopted faster than any other technology in human history, are the visible expressions of a technology-oriented consumer (Jack and Suri, 2010). Although this image is mainly associated with the iPhone in Asian, European, or North American contexts, the spread of mobile phone technology has been even faster and successful in Africa.

Like many parts of the developing world, Africans are significantly less likely to have bank accounts and credit or debit cards. But mobile phones have penetrated the African market, and in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, the majority of people have a workable phone.

M-Pesa is a Kenyan mobile payments platform, one of the first of its kind in Africa (

he service has been a runaway success since launching in 2007, operating in 10 countries across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia and earning Safaricom 19.4 billion shillings (about $190 million) in the first half of 2015. It seems likely that as cell phone use continues to proliferate on the African continent, M-Pesa's transactions will grow, too.

Two thirds of the African population work in agriculture, yet just 1% of commercial loans go to the sector, and very few of these are allocated to smallholder farmers. Kenyan company FarmDrive is using data from ESA's Food Security Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) to help smallholder farmers access the funds they need.

Microfinance platform Kiva has proven many times over that people are willing to give $25 microloans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Now the platform is bringing its microfinance savvy to small business owners in struggling areas of the U.S. with Kiva City, a program launched this past June. The program has already proven successful in Detroit and New Orleans (the two launch cities), where 19 initial loans have been fulfilled by microlenders. That’s over $135,000 in loans.

Mr Winter, however, feels security is actually enhanced by the likes of SnapScan and FlickPay, as the customer's credit card is never handled by the merchant so cannot be skimmed or copied. Mr Rusagara says the system is secure for both customer and retailer, with QR codes expiring upon use, or after 90 seconds.

"SnapScan does not charge shoppers any fees. Merchants pay a small transaction fee that is comparable or cheaper than using normal credit card facilities."

Fintech, at the heart of the banking sector revolutionObviously, Fintechs and traditional banks adopt very different strategies. Indeed, while traditional institutions have a long-term vision (analysis of the financial market, risk amortization), neobanks prefer immediate action.Thus, we can consider that there are two categories of Fintech on the market. On the one hand, regulated companies that ensure compliance with regulatory constraints, and on the other, those that adopt a completely different strategy based on customer satisfaction.The first category positions itself as a direct competitor of banking establishments, while the second opts for cooperation and encourages the buyout or majority stake.Fintechs base their strategy on customer dissatisfaction, especially with their bank . These new shoots seek to improve every aspect of the banking relationship, as a priority, by neglecting issues related to organization, compliance and profitability.However, professionals remain skeptical. Do these FinTechs really hope to succeed in a few months, where several players have been striving for years? By this we mean the fact of wanting to change the regulations of the sector or even the constitution of a team of experts within a short time.So far, experts in the banking industry doubt a real revolution in banking regulation.Traditional banks remain priority players in the marketDespite the emergence of remote banking and the new measure on banking mobility , traditional banks remain the majority players in the market. Indeed, new brands are still struggling to reach the same level as a "real" bank.In addition, for the time being, income from investment funds and venture capitalists has not been of much use to the banking sector. Remember, however, that it is thanks to them that certain brands such as Uber, Amazon or Tesla have succeeded.Today, players in e-commerce are using capital increases to compensate for losses, a technique that has not yet been adopted in the banking sector. As a starting point, SoftBank has already started by building up a $ 100 billion fund for banking technology.

Many CFOs are quick to think that technology will solve all of their CFO technology problems and, in some cases, they are told that it will. But if the fundamentals aren’t in place and the path to an end is not defined, a well-intentioned finance modernization initiative can fall short of expectations. This can potentially lead to a significantly lower return on investment, add to the frustration of business users, and cause organizational leaders to become skeptical about future finance modernization projects.None of us knows for certain what the future will hold, but we all have a responsibility to anticipate and prepare for change. In finance, that means working now to get the right people and technology in place to take advantage of the inevitable disruptions ahead. But that’s not likely to happen without a clear vision and strategy for finance in a digital world. Now is the time to step back and make sure your finance transformation roadmap to that future is clear.Having a technology-enabled finance strategy, including identifying and prioritizing where and when to invest in finance modernization assets, is critical to creating organizational value and driving business performance.Back to top

CEO of Abacus Wealth Management, an online investment brokerage. Abacus allows investors to make and execute faster, smarter, more informed decisions on instruments in Kenya's financial markets. CEO of Capital Associates, an investment and holding company with interests in financial services, real estate, agriculture and technology. Previously started and built Kenya’s largest consumer financial news and information site. Experience in mobile money, having led teams that developed mobile banking solutions for Kenyan branches of global banks such as Barclays and Standard Chartered, and several local banks and financial institutions. I keep up to date with changes in the industry and get involved through consulting and advisory. Actively involved in Kenya’s start-up scene as an entrepreneur, a member of the iHub and Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A) communities, as an advisor to several web and mobile start-ups and a writer. My focus is on business and revenue models, financing and venture capital.

According to the World Bank, Ghana is the fastest-growing mobile-money market in Africa. Mobile operators MTN, AirtelTigo and Vodafone currently lead the industry. Banks are pushing digital banking in Ghana, but with less success, according to a report from Tellimer in September. Banks such as Ecobank, Fidelity, Zenith and Standard Chartered can use Ghana’s improving digital infrastructure to widen inclusion, Tellimer says. But the firms points to downside for banks through possible loss of deposits and lower margins on digital products due to the competition. Mobile money may lead to the “cannibalisation” of some banking products, Tellimer says. “Banks will have to fight for transactions and deposits.”

MTN is the dominant player with about 90% of mobile money transactions.

It will take other players a “lot of marketing and effort or very innovative strategies” to compete with MTN,