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Technology & New Innovations at Chicago Microfinance Conference
At Friday’s Chicago Booth and Zell Center Microfinance Conference, several of my colleagues and members of heard from ‘s SVP of International Business Development, Dennis Ripley, who spoke as part of a panel called “New Products and Innovations in Microfinance,” along with Kate Cochran, COO at Vittana; Karl Muth, Consulting Economist at Grameen; and moderator Nina Read more…
Tagged 2012 Chicago Microfinance Conference, Africa, ATMs, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Chicago Microfinance Conference, Clients, Colombia, Credit Suisse, Dennis Ripley, DePaul University, Ghana, Grameen, hub-and-spoke model, Kenya, Latin America, Loans, M-PESA, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Nicaragua, Opportunity International, POS devices, Poverty, Richard Leftley, Savings, Smart Campaign, Students, Technology, Tigo, Uganda, Vittana, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
What We’re Reading: “Ten Biggest Positive Africa Stories of 2011,” The New Yorker
“…Yes, there is tragedy in Africa, and you will always find it there, and we must take those tragedies seriously, but there is also extraordinary opportunity. And if you see this continent as the continent of the future, it sort of reframes it. This is a continent that, by 2050, will be the largest and Read more…
Tagged Africa, Arab Spring, Bono, Cell phone banking, DR Congo, elections, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, famine, Ghana, Healthcare, Horn of Africa, Kenya, Liberia, life insurance, M-PESA, Microensure, Microinsurance, mobile phone banking, Nobel Peace Prize, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, The New Yorker, Tigo, what we're reading
Mobile Phone Banking & Technology: Learn from Microfinance Experts
Geoffrey Thige, chief operations officer of Opportunity International Kenya, arrived at our Oak Brook, Ill. offices this week–his first stop in a U.S. tour that culminates as a guest speaker at Opportunity’s conference in San Francisco, Oct. 14-15. With over 15 years of experience in microfinance, COO Thige oversees Transformation, IT, Risk/Compliance and Special Projects Read more…
Tagged Africa, Breakout session, Clients, Conference, Education, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Geoffrey Thige, international staff, Kenya, M-PESA, Microfinance, mobile phone banking, Nairobi, OIC2011, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, Opportunity Kenya, Poverty, Safaricom, Technology
What We’re Reading: “Rural and Agricultural Finance in the Spotlight at Cracking the Nut Conference”
A few weeks ago, Shari Berenbach, Director of USAID’s Microenterprise Development Office, wrote a blog post on the USAID’s IMPACTblog reported on a conference held in Washington that directly addressed the problems that face agricultural microfinance, as 600 million smallholder farmers currently live on less than $2 a day. Speakers at the conference emphasized new Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, ATMs, biometric fingerprint technology, biometrics, branchless banking, Cell phone banking, Colombia, Community, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Poverty, Kenya, Latin America, Loans, M-banking, M-PESA, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile branches, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, Opportunity International, Opportunity Kenya, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, Rural banking, Rural Outreach, Technology, USAID, USAID Impact blog, what we're reading
The Christian Science Monitor on Biometrics & Mobile Money at Opportunity Malawi
The Christian Science Monitor today posted an article entitled, “Villages Leapfrog the Grid with Biometrics and Mobile Money,” which lauds these technologies as a way for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid to access financial services and protect themselves in the case of drought and disasters. Today’s story is part of a series Read more…
Tagged Africa, Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, biometric technology, biometrics, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Crop insurance, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Fingerprint, funeral insurance, Gates Foundation, Kenya, life insurance, M-banking, M-PESA, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, OIBM, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, South Africa, Technology, The Christian Science Monitor, what we're reading
What We’re Reading: “How Small Loans Are Pulling Kenyans Out of Poverty Trap”
Kenya’s Daily Nation posted a piece this weekend that applauded microfinance institutions for offering financial solutions that reach more Kenyan people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. The article praises microfinance for helping to alleviate poverty in the developing world. The microfinance model has proved to be ”a potent tool for increasing access to finance, expanding production and opening Read more…
Tagged Africa, ATMs, Banking, Cell phone banking, Clients, Ending Poverty, Financial Access, Financial services, Global Poverty, Kenya, Loans, M-PESA, MFI, Microfinance, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, Opportunity International, point-of-sale devices, Poverty, Rural banking, Savings, Technology, Training, Trust Groups
Mobile Banking Reaches Remote Microfinance Clients in Malawi, Tanzania
Mobile banking including mobile phone banking continues to be one of the great success stories in poverty alleviation for geographically remote microfinance clients in sub-Saharan Africa. Yesterday, the Bureau of International Information Programs at the U.S. State Department published an online article highlighting the ways in which mobile banking is reaching more geographically remote clients in Tanzania and Read more…
Tagged Africa, Banking on Africa, CARE, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Clients, Dar es Salaam, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Financial Times, Healthcare, Loans, M-banking, M-PESA, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile banking vehicle, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, OIBM, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi, Opportunity Malawi, Opportunity Tanzania, Poverty, Rural banking, Rural Outreach, Savings, State Department, sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania, Technology, USAID
What We’re Watching: Podcast on Mobile Phone Banking from Gates Foundation
There’s an opportunity for banking to be an innovator. To take advantage of technology that’s out there to solve the problem of how do we serve clients in a more cost-effective way, closer to where they live. -From the podcast: “Efforts by Banks: OIBM, Part 2″ in the series “Mobile Money-Mobile Banking“ Tamara Cook, program officer, Read more…
Tagged Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Gates Foundation, M-banking, M-PESA, Malawi, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, OIBM, Opportunity International, Opportunity Malawi, podcast, Poverty, tamara cook, Technology, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
