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Bosire and Kimani launched FarmDrive in May 2015. The digital recordkeeping platform serves as a basis for bankers to establish credit ratings and determine which farmers are best suited for small loans. FarmDrive’s pilot program consisted of 50 farmers. Today hundreds of thousands are in FarmDrive’s database; about 830 have received financing. In turn the banks pay FarmDrive for essentially functioning as their credit bureau for Kenya’s vast farming community. The two entrepreneurs have no intention of stopping there. “There are more than five million small farmers in Kenya,” Bosire says. “Throughout Africa it’s about 50 million. But when we started FarmDrive, we always had global ambitions. We’re building solutions for farmers in Asia too.”

ut the boxSnapScan is providing a uniquely digital solution, where you can download as many SnapCodes as you like from the Merchant Portal and display these anywhere you want to accept contactless mobile payments. You also have the option to purchase a SnapScan Starter Kit when you successfully sign up your business. This includes a printed SnapCode in a stand, a double-sided sticker, and info flyers for first time app users. Display your SnapCode anywhere you want to accept mobile payments. You'll automatically receive confirmation of payment via SMS.

Consumers can download the MasterPass app from their app store, register, and load their credit, debit or cheque cards from any bank into the digital wallet. To pay, Masterpass users simply need to scan a QR code, or SnapCode, displayed at point of sale or online at a wide range of SnapScan merchants including coffee shops, professionals like doctors and market vendors. They then enter the payment amount into their Masterpass app and confirm the transaction with their ATM pin code or a one-time pin code sent to their mobile phones.

Another startup is Apollo Agriculture which raised $6 million Series A, akin to Pula. Not only did the pair raise the same round, Apollo Agriculture and Pula both deal with providing financial resources to smallholder farmers.

Pula is solving this problem by using technology and data. Through its Area Yield Index Insurance product, the insurtech startup leverages machine learning, crop-cut experiments and data points relating to weather patterns and farmer losses, to build products that cater to various risks.But getting farmers on board has never been easy, Goslinga told TechCrunch. According to her, Pula has understood not to sell insurance directly to small-scale farmers, because they can suffer from optimism bias. “Some think a climate disaster wouldn’t hit their farms for a particular season; hence, they don’t ask for insurance initially. But if they witness any of these climate risks during the season, they would want to get insurance, which is counterproductive to Pula,” said the founder in a phone call.

Pula, a Kenyan insurtech startup that specialises in digital and agricultural insurance to derisk millions of smallholder farmers across Africa, has closed a Series A investment of $6 million.The round was led by Pan-African early-stage venture capital firm, TLcom Capital, with participation from nonprofit Women’s World Banking. The raise comes after Pula closed $1 million in seed investment from Rocher Participations with support from Accion Venture Lab, Omidyar Network and several angel investors in 2018.

WorldRemit, on the other hand, partners with local banks and mobile networks; in Kenya, for example, it is working with electronic wallet service M-Pesa, so that money can be transferred instantly to all customers. The recipient can retrieve the funds as a bank deposit into a local WorldRemit bank account, as mobile money, airtime top-up or as cash at a supermarket. The fees are two to three per cent lower than those charged by most banks. WorldRemit’s closest rival is Remitly, another digital-only company that specialises in sending money from developed countries to the developing world.

“The introduction of these two electronic platforms is in response to the Central Bank’s challenges of financial inclusion of the citizens. The USSD and the SnapScan, which are in the testing phase, will allow people from remote locations, even without bank branches, to perform fast and safe operations”, said the Managing Director from Standard Bank.With these two platforms, as mentioned, Standard Bank also intends to boost the migration of banking transactions from branches to electronic platforms, making the bank more accessible, in a quick, convenient and safe manner from anywhere, anytime.

With these two platforms, as mentioned, Standard Bank also intends to boost the migration of banking transactions from branches to electronic platforms, making the bank more accessible, in a quick, convenient and safe manner from anywhere, anytime.

“The introduction of these two electronic platforms is in response to the Central Bank’s challenges of financial inclusion of the citizens. The USSD and the SnapScan, which are in the testing phase, will allow people from remote locations, even without bank branches, to perform fast and safe operations”, said the Managing Director from Standard Bank.

The deal will see the pair work on the development of new products and services supporting digital payment for customers of Safaricom’s M-Pesa micro-finance and payments platform. The partnership will cover over 24 million M-Pesa customers, more than 173,000 M-Pesa merchants from Safaricom and more than 61 million merchants on Visa’s network. “This partnership will play an important role in delivering even more value to our customers,” says Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom.

Aujourd’hui, près de 19 millions de Kényans font un usage régulier de M-Pesa soit près de 70 % de la population adulte. Chaque seconde, environ 900 transactions sont réalisées par ce biais. Au total, M-Pesa voit transiter 68 % des transactions monétaires du pays, représentant en valeur 7 % des montants passant par l’ensemble des moyens de paiement du système bancaire et financier kényan, soit 25 Mds USD par an ou un peu plus du tiers du PIB du pays.

We live in a world of instant global communication. Yet the business of sending money abroad has remained stuck in the past. Many money transfer companies still make their customers visit an agent and fill-out bits of paper. And despite the inconvenience, their rates are often punishing.

“Egypt needs fintech, specifically after the success story of Fawry, since our financial markets are not properly regulated at the level of payments and e-commerce – all of it is more informal, so any solutions would boom,” Sharara says.

MoneyFellows, an Egyptian startup incubated in London, marries technology with traditional money circles to help people save and borrow through their social networks. Like many other startups, MoneyFellows has to work with commercial banks because the Egyptian government has strict regulations about institutions that can look after customers’ deposits.

ape Town-based remittance and money transfer provider Mukuru has reached over seven million customers globally and is looking to extend its footprint across Southern Africa.Mukuru enables affordable and reliable financial services to underserved communities. Its remittance service offers customers the opportunity to send or receive money, with users in over 20 countries across Africa and Asia. Services include sending cash for collection, bank account top-up or mobile wallet transfers.Additional offerings include funeral cover, the Mukuru Money Card and various payment solutions targeted at businesses in emerging markets. Transactions can be conducted either physically at any of its network branches, or via its digital platforms, mobile app, USSD or WhatsApp.While the company operates in over 20 countries, the mobile app is currently only available for download in SA and it is preparing to roll it out broadly across Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, the UK and EU over the next 12 months.

The financial services industry today is characterized by change. Investor interest and capital is pouring into fintech companies – digital banks, insurtechs, wealthtechs, proptechs and every option in between are shifting how financial services are created, offered and evaluated. New changes, new challengesThis shift has spurred many traditional financial institutions to take action. Yet, changes aren’t always straightforward. Financial institutions know they need to embrace innovation, and they also have to find better ways to understand and respond to their customers.At the same time, the shift has put a spotlight on a new area of opportunity for big tech companies like Alibaba, Apple, Google, Tencent and others. These companies have incredible reach, deep roots into their customers’ lives, and robust customer data. Big techs are also constantly looking for ways to provide their customers with more value, to enhance customer loyalty by providing a more integrated ecosystem. Most already offer payments solutions, so extending their offerings to include financial products makes sense. However, there are no strong indicators that the big tech companies want to become banks. The regulatory burden is so far considered too high for their appetite1. Forging strategic alliancesBig tech and financial institutions are already investing in fintechs to help advance their strategic goals. For example, Tencent led a $35 million investment in open banking focused TrueLayer in the UK this year2.What they are realizing that partnerships don’t have to be limited to start-ups – working together with established institutions can create value. Over the past 6 months, there have been a number of strategic business relationships announced, such as Google’s partnership with Citibank and Stanford Federal Credit Union, to offer smart checking accounts3 and Apple’s announcement of a partnership with Goldman Sachs to offer the Apple Card credit card4. These will likely only be the beginning. 

We empower individuals with access to credit, simple payments solutions, high-yield investment opportunities and easy-to-use tools for personal financial management. Carbon is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. We are a global company of over 90 employees with operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya

Carbon is a financial service provided by Carbon Finance & Investments Limited (RC 1044655), licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). We empower individuals with credit, simple payments solutions, high-yield investment opportunities, and easy-to-use tools for personal financial management. We are a global company of over 90 employees with a presence in Mauritius, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, South Africa, and Kenya.

AIG Insurance Company has signed an agreement with Fawry, a digital payment platform.The partnership concerns the marketing of "Qershak el Abyad", an electronic policy managed by Fawry Insurance Brokerage.The product will thus be available through Fawry's network of 151 000 sales outlets and numerous distribution channels (banks, telephone operators, etc.) used by more than 30 million consumers.

As electronic payments have moved to the forefront, the traditional market participants, banks, have also been facing increased competition from innovative financial technology firms (FinTechs) focusing on niches within the payments value chain. Such firms have been enabled by advances in technology, including the ability to develop their systems in the cloud and with a green field that is not tied to a mainframe and old code.

The application of technological innovations to the finance industry (Fintech) has been attracting tens of billions of dollars in venture capital in recent years. Examples of Fintech innovations include digital cash transfer services in Kenya and India, and peer-to-peer lending platforms in China. These services, when developed in tandem with complementary government policies and regulatory frameworks, have the potential to expand financial services to hundreds of millions of people currently lacking access and to break new ground on the way finance is conducted. This is important because sustainable economic growth is strongly linked with financial inclusion. The successful adoption of Fintech to increase financial inclusion is highly dependent on competent regulatory oversight. By examining varying degrees of success in the adoption of Fintech services in Kenya, India and China this paper argues that adopting a responsive regulatory approach, rather than an overly interventionist one, is the most suitable framework for boosting financial inclusion through technological innovation.