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Delivering on Education for All: The Role of Mobile Money

For many low-income families worldwide, education can be out of reach. Mobile money and digital financial services have the potential to help families by providing them with better tools that can help them save, plan and make education payments.

Digital Social Payments in India: Can the Challenges Be Overcome?

Envisioned as a digital revolution for government transfers, India's Direct Benefit Transfer program transfers government benefits into recipients' bank accounts. Three years in, the government continues to face challenges in digitizing transfers. Is there a way forward?

Those Star-Ratings Do Matter for Financial Inclusion

CGAP recently partnered with MercadoLibre, Latin America’s largest online retailer, to assess the potential of alternative data to boost financial inclusion. This research found that e-commerce data can be a powerful credit risk predictor for underbanked and unbanked people.

The Role of Financial Services in Reducing Hunger

Many of the world's 1.5 billion smallholder farmers lack access to basic financial services, leaving them vulnerable to shocks and prone to low-risk, low-return investments. Improving access to financial services can help farmers increase household income and food security.

Headwinds and Tailwinds in Banking Small Businesses

Rapid “digitization” of business and investment in financial technology have the potential to significantly improve access to finance for millions of micro, small, and medium enterprises worldwide, yet challenges remain. Can FinTech solve the access to finance problem for MSMEs?

Better Understanding the Demand for Islamic Microfinance

CGAP, Yale University and Tamweelcom have taken a novel approach to the study of demand for Islamic and conventional loans in Jordan. This randomized experiment reveals new insights into the real demand for Islamic microloans, and the findings are striking.

Pakistan’s Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion

Pakistan has the second worst gender gap in the world, an imbalance reflected in the country’s financial inclusion numbers. What are the specific causes of women's financial exclusion, and what are potential solutions?

Beyond Credit: Risk Management as a Strategy for Economic Growth

Well-functioning financial markets are essential for the growth of firms, including commercial farms. Efforts to improve financial markets in underserved localities must include an understanding of stakeholders’ risk management needs—not just access to credit.

Advancing Financial Inclusion to Improve Access to Education

Worldwide, 124 million children between the ages of 6 and 15 are not in school. While financial inclusion cannot solve the many complex reasons all children are not in school, better financial tools can help families manage educational expenses.

Energy and Water for All: The Last Mile Is the Longest Mile

New models for financing household connections to energy, water and sanitation are enabling more low-income households to access these essential services. Financial solutions are necessary for achieving access targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Daily Diaries Reveal Bangladesh’s Shifting Financial Landscape

In Bangladesh, 50 respondents are providing full daily details of all transactions in an ongoing financial diaries project. This project aims to provide insights into the money management behavior of low-income rural Bangladeshis. What have the diaries revealed so far?

Mobile Money in Bangladesh Plateaus after Fast Start

Mobile money in Bangladesh had a fast start. However, recent data show that while use is still increasing, the rate of growth in transaction value and volume is tapering off. Researchers analyzed a number of possible explanations for this trend.

Digital Financial Services for Cocoa Farmers in Côte d’Ivoire

Smallholder farmers are largely unable to access formal financial institutions. Over the past 22 months, a pilot project implemented by Advans Côte d’Ivoire strove to link cocoa farmers to financial institutions by transitioning from cash to digital payments, with promising results.

Financial Inclusion Has a Big Role to Play in Reaching the SDGs

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include greater equality and access to clean water, among other objectives, but not access to savings accounts, loans, insurance and other financial services. Financial inclusion can play an important role in achieving many of the SDGs.

Interactive SMS Drives Digital Savings and Borrowing in Tanzania

Financial education is often delinked from customer actions–they may learn about interest rates now, but won’t need to borrow for months or even years. In rural Tanzania, an interactive SMS project brought information to farmers' phones, enabling customized learning in real time.

The Unusual Financial Dynamics of Short-Tenor Digital Credit

Digital credit is disbursed and recovered rapidly, often in 30 days or less, and generally with loan amounts smaller than conventional credit or micro-lending. CGAP built a digital credit financial model to investigate the basic financial dynamics of loan portfolios made up of short-term, small loans.

An Indian Start for Digital Credit

In India, loans often require extensive application processes or participation in a joint liability group. A pioneering digital loan provided by Suvidhaa Infoserve and Axis Bank is changing the financial services landscape.

An Introductory Course to Digital Credit

In the growing field of digital credit, CGAP research has found exciting innovations along with fundamental miscalculations. CGAP's self-directed course, "An Introduction to Digital Credit," presents key lessons for practitioners, regulators and others with an interest in digital credit.

Unlocking Financial Inclusion Using Biometrically Verified SIMs

In 2015, Pakistan became the first country to leverage biometric SIM verification for remote mobile wallet account opening. We talked to members of the Banking Policy and Regulation Department at the State Bank of Pakistan to learn more about these developments and the exciting implications for financial inclusion.

Agents for Everyone: Removing Agent Exclusivity in Kenya & Uganda

Mobile money and banking agents blend seamlessly into the daily economic lives of consumers in countries like Kenya and Uganda, offering convenience and expanding access points to financial services. But agent exclusivity clauses can limit customers' choices.