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Crop Insurance: Protecting Farmers Against the Effects of Climate Change
Jeffrey Ebarrita (right) uses a GPS device to survey the land of Rodolfo Felipe, an Opportunity crop insurance policyholder in the Philippines. A recent UPI wire story, which highlights Opportunity International’s weather-index crop insurance, hails microinsurance as an exciting new tool to help communities in the developing world face the worst impacts of climate change. The article, Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Climate Change, Drought, Farmer, Koko Warner, Malawi, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Shadreck Mapfumo, Smallholder farmer, United Nations, UPI wire story, Weather-index crop insurance
Is access to financial services a human right?
Opportunity International’s April DuBois opened her presentation today at the 7th International Human Rights Forum in Lucerne, Switzerland, with this question. She and Opportunity’s Daryl Skoog partnered with Fabian Huwyler of Credit Suisse to present a special workshop on “Electronic Wallets – Reaching More of the World’s Poor with Financial Access.” And back in the States, Read more…
Tagged Africa, April DuBois, Children, Credit Suisse, Daryl Skoog, Education, Electronic transactions, Electronic wallet strategy, Financial Access, Human Rights, Insurance, International Human Rights Forum, Loans, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, Muhammad Yunus, Obstacles, Opportunity International, Poverty, Savings, Technology, Training
Cell Phone Banking Technology Comes to Opportunity Malawi
Opportunity International is excited to announce that, after several years and many challenges, Opportunity Malawi launched its cell phone banking product, Banki Mmanja, on May 7 in the rural district of Dowa. In 2007, Opportunity started work on a project that could tap into the country’s huge network of cell phone users and bring the bank Read more…
Tagged Africa, Cell Phones, Children, Credit Suisse, Dowa, Half the Sky, International Women's Day, Kenya, Loans, Malawi, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, Nairobi, Ndirande, Opportunity International, POS devices, Poverty, Rural banking, Technology, WON
Outrage & Inspire – All Efforts Great and Small by Roger Thurow
Roger Thurow, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for three decades, spoke at Opportunity International’s recent microfinance conference in Phoenix. His subsequent post, “All Efforts Great and Small,” on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Global Food for Thought blog, discusses Opportunity’s agricultural finance program and its big impact on farmers in Africa. Read it Read more…
Gates and Mastercard Foundations Partner with Opportunity International
In an effort to reach people living in poverty in rural areas, Opportunity International has researched and implemented new products and platforms such as mobile banking, savings services, agricultural finance, cell phone banking, education finance and much more. Because they believe in Opportunity International’s innovative model, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation Read more…
Ask a Microfinance Expert: M-Banking
The microfinance landscape has changed because of the advent of mobile phone banking technology. With the simple use of a cellular phone, Opportunity clients can check their account balances, transfer money between accounts, send money to other people, pay bills, receive salary or government payments, and buy airtime. If the people cannot come to the Read more…
Tagged IGP Learning Network, Mobile Banking, Mobile Phones, Rural banking, SEEP Network, Technology
Melinda Gates Highlights Opportunity International
Earlier this week, Opportunity International was honored to host Melinda Gates as she visited some of our clients and experienced our banking services in Malawi. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Opportunity is expanding access to savings accounts, loans, training and insurance to people struggling to work their way out of Read more…
Opportunity CEO Advocates Bottom-up Approach to Economic Development
In a speech on Thursday October 29th to the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, Opportunity CEO Kadita “A.T.” Tshibaka cited many things he learned while working in emerging markets at Citibank and Lloyds TSB Group for over 35 years. One is that a bottom-up approach to economic development is generally the most effective. Kadita said, “We cannot Read more…
Tagged Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Banking on Education, Bottom-up approach, Citibank, Emerging Markets, Foreign Relations, Kadita "A.T." Tshibaka, Lloyds TBS Group, Macro-economic policies, Opportunity International, Savings, Top-down approach
