Recent Blogs
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Top 10 Blog Posts of 2019
The most widely read blog posts of 2019 cover topics like the impact of financial inclusion, how Kenyans really use M-PESA, and more.Blog
How Are Kenya’s Youth Experiencing the Gig Economy?
The gig economy is on the rise in Africa. What does this mean for youth? In Kenya, CGAP interviewed young people to get their perspectives.Blog
How Fintechs Could Digitize Store Credit in the Arab World
People in the Arab world rely on store credit almost twice as much as people in other regions. Here are three ways fintechs could digitize this type of credit.Blog
Last-Mile Agent Networks: Why Public-Private Partnerships Matter
Building out rural agent networks isn’t just about harnessing digital innovations. Global experience shows that it’s also about the public and private sectors working together.Blog
Digital Finance and the Future of Competition Policy
As tech giants disrupt financial services, they are giving urgency to questions around competition policy. Here are five questions that policy makers in developing countries should be asking about how to ensure fair play.Blog
Deposit Insurance: The Last Line of Defense for E-Money?
Should deposit insurance cover e-money? The answer may not be the same for every country, but here are two lessons that apply across markets.Blog
Zoona Is Putting APIs at the Core of Its Business: Here’s Why
What began as a side project has become central to Zoona's plans for growth. In this blog post, Zoona executives Brett Magrath and Bridgid Thomson discuss the importance of APIs at the company.Blog
Smart Phones, Smart Partners: Linking Asset Finance and Microfinance
One company offers microcredit. The other offers PAYGo financing for smartphones, tablets and solar home systems. In what may be a template for other microfinance institutions, they are helping each other to reach more low-income customers.Blog
A Vision for Collaborative Customer ID Verification in Africa
Technology has the capacity to improve financial inclusion in Africa, but this value can be unlocked only if African leaders reduce the burden of customer ID checks.Blog
Bringing Digital Finance Agents to the Last Mile in Indonesia
A recent CGAP publication identifies six principles for viable agent networks in rural areas. In this post, we look at how where Indonesia stands against these principles.Blog
BTPN Wow! Using Open APIs to Bring E-Commerce to Its 250,000 Agents
By connecting its agents to e-commerce platforms, BTPN is giving agents and end-customers in Indonesia more reasons to use its mobile banking service.Blog
Mapping Fintech Innovations in the Arab World
Where is fintech innovation happening in the Arab world? What types of solutions are emerging? CGAP shares preliminary results from our research on fintech in a region with roughly 140 million financially excluded adults.Blog
Open Data and the Future of Banking
Although growing numbers of low-income people are entering the formal financial system, many are not yet leveraging its full value. Emerging regimes for data sharing and payments flexibility have the potential to bypass traditional financial sector development and give poor customers better products and more choices.Blog
The Path to Financial Health Begins in Adolescence
It is critical that youth financial inclusion programs tailor interventions based on young people's life stage to achieve long-term impact on financial health.Blog
Where Youth Join Trust Groups, Not Insurgency Groups
By providing a combination of financial and nonfinancial services to over 16,000 smallholders, a social enterprise in northern Nigeria is harnessing the power of agriculture to create jobs for youth and improve livelihoods.Blog
4 Keys to a Successful Developer Portal for Digital Finance APIs
Here are some practical tips on how digital financial services providers can build a first-rate developer portal for their APIs.Blog
Former PAYGo CFO: Smart Subsidies Can Scale Energy Financing
Well-designed subsidies could create a stronger foundation for the solar home system industry and enable it to reach more low-income customers, according to entrepreneur and former PAYGo executive Joshua Romisher.Blog
When Youth Entrepreneurship Training Meets Financial Inclusion
By working together to integrate entrepreneurship training and financial inclusion in Africa, youth-serving organizations and financial services providers could help young people build successful businesses and create jobs.Blog
A New Generation of Government-to-Person Payments Is Emerging
Advances in payment infrastructure are enabling governments to channel payments through multiple providers, giving people greater choice over how to receive payments. This is an important shift with implications for financial services providers, recipients of government payments and financial inclusion.Blog