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Investment in financial technology (“Fintech”) companies is growing dramatically. Global Fintech funding has risen to over $100 billion, fueled by large M&A deals and large rounds of financing. Investment in Fintech companies is expected to continue to grow significantly in the next few years as such companies offer outsized growth opportunities.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta, Crantz) is extensively cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics regions due to its ability to grow in diverse soil conditions and minimal management (Wanapat, 2003; Wanapat et al. 2006; Wanapat & Khampa, 2007). The root is composed almost entirely of carbohydrate which can be used as important food source. However, it contains cyanogens (1- 3% CP) depending on cultivars (Stupak et al., 2006) and large amount of cyanogenic glucosides in the cassava flour (Cumbana et al., 2007) which could limit cassava root utilization for consumption and for livestock feeding. The laminarin and lotaustralin cassava's cyanogenic compounds are changed to hydrocyanic acid (HCN) by the action of the laminarase enzyme when roots are crushed or sliced (Wanapat et al., 1999; Cardoso et al., 2005).

At Kiva, we are constantly working to reach new countries and communities, with loans that better serve the needs of borrowers and their families. Kiva lenders crowdfund an average of $2.5 million in loans each week, creating a unique, renewable pool of funds that is reshaping access to financial services around the world

Kiva takes due diligence and monitoring very seriously as part of our responsibility to lenders and borrowers. We encourage all lenders to learn about the risks of lending on Kiva as Kiva does not guarantee repayment on any loans. Lending on Kiva may involve loss of principal, for a variety of reasons including if the borrower doesn’t repay, the Field Partner doesn’t repay or from currency loss. The level of due diligence relevant to a specific loan on Kiva depends on a variety of factors, including how the loan is administered. Most loans on Kiva are administered by one of our local partners working in more than 80 countries. Kiva conducts due diligence on all Field Partners prior to allowing them to begin posting loans on the Kiva platform. To learn more about this process visit our Field Partner due diligence page.

One of the uniqueness of HelloCash mobile money services is its interoperability and shared infrastructure features. The system is designed for multi banks and MFI’s to be interconnected and offer the mobile money service to their respective customers, therefore, partnering financial institutions are able to share each other’s agent and branch network to serve each other’s customers.

Through SimbaPay, Prime Bank customers will now be able to instantly and securely send money directly to bank accounts or mobile wallets across 15 countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia including India, United Kingdom, China (WeChat Pay), Germany, Uganda among others.

Commenting on the partnership, SimbaPay’s Head of Operations Victor Karanja noted that the service will provide a seamless platform for Prime Bank’s customer base to send money abroad at the click of a button.

The launch of the services, which allow customers to make payments or receive money via a mobile that is linked to a bank account, mirrors technology used in other African nations that has drawn millions of people into the financial system.

The main telecoms operators in the country are all pitching in too – starting with Safaricom which uses the M-Pesa mobile application. In my book “Startup Lions, at the heart of African Tech” I explain how M-Pesa was born organically (and unexpectedly) from contact with the poorest Kenyan populations who didn’t even have bank accounts. A great many of them used ‘m-banking’ to gain financial independence which led to the M-Pesa service having over 22.6 million users in Kenya in 2019 – almost two-thirds of the adult population. A few hours after the president’s announcement, M-Pesa decided to drastically reduce its usage fees and to remove the daily transaction volume limit across the board in order to increase cash flow.

To encourage innovation, many industries such as healthcare and life science have started using the latest technologies for optimizing their business processes, cost cutting, and so on. Since there are lots of opportunities among various industries, the Fintech industries will get cost-effective processes and fewer regulations in the traditional financial sectors.