Blog

Can Mobile Money Extend Financial Services To Smallholder Farmers

On paper, digital financial services can sound like a silver bullet to reach millions of rural, underserved smallholder farmers. In reality, the challenges can be greater than the deployment of a low-tech solution.

Financial Consumer Protection: 5 Lessons from Behavioral Research

The boom in behavioral research methods means that gaining a deeper, more evidence-based understanding of how actors in a financial market behave, what incentives drive them, and what new policies or products can lead to responsible and inclusive financial systems.

Bringing Mobile Wallets to Nigerian Farmers

Cellulant developed a mobile wallet network in Nigeria that extends to some eight million farmers. With more than 40 million transactions in just two years, smallholder farmers in Nigeria are poised to adopt digital financial services more broadly.

Smallholder Finance: Digital Solutions to Traditional Challenges?

A new CGAP focus note takes a look at the ways digital financial services can help overcome the traditional "pain points" - including higher cost and risk - of serving smallholder farmers with formal financial services.

Why Equity Bank Felt It Had to Become a Telco – Reluctantly

Ignacio Mas and John Staley explain Equity Bank's decision to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator in Kenya.

What Next for Remittances and Money Transfers in the Pacific?

There is a risk that recent progress in the Pacific region to drive down the cost of remittances will be undone, as money transfer operators are facing increased regulatory pressures.

Three Lessons from Mobile Microinsurance in Bangladesh

Bima recently commissioned a survey of active Bima Life Insurance customers in order to better understand the profile and behavioral patterns of mobile microinsurance customers in Bangladesh. This blog gives an overview of the findings.

Using Phones to Engage Customers with Insurance Products

As part of CGAP's Applied Product Innovation project with MicroEnsure and design firm Continuum, several different ways were tested to see how insurance could take advantage of the mobile phone’s capabilities to engage with people more powerfully and effectively.

Increasing the Immediate Value of Microinsurance for the Poor

CGAP has recently concluded an Applied Product Innovation project with insurance intermediary MicroEnsure and design firm Continuum. The challenge: using human centered design techniques to figure out how to deliver relevant insurance products to the mass market, leveraging mobile phones.

Power of the Persona: Applied Product Innovation with Bank BTPN

This is the second of a two-part blog series presenting some of the key findings from CGAP’s Applied Product Innovation program with the Indonesian Bank BTPN.

Indonesia: Anatomy of a Successful Human-Centered Design Project

CGAP recently completed an Applied Product Innovation (API) project with Bank BTPN in Indonesia. The goal of such API projects is to develop new financial service offerings that are relevant to customers’ lives.

Can a Digitized Post Realize India’s Financial Inclusion Dreams?

With a giant effort currently underway to digitize India’s Post, this blog analyzes the prospects of India’s postal network to address the country’s financial inclusion challenges.

Making Sense of Financial Inclusion Data Sources

Having a variety of data sources on financial inclusion is an asset. But depending on what data sources are used can lead to very different conclusions about financial inclusion.

Payment Innovations Improve Access to Solar Energy, Clean Water

A number of business model innovations that link poor households to better basic services are becoming economically viable through advances in digital payments infrastructure. This blog discusses three lessons on how to advance the nascent field of "Digital Finance Plus".

Applied Product Innovation for Smallholder Finance

CGAP is seeking partners to engage in a human-centered design process to develop products specifically tailored to the needs and objectives of smallholder farmers and their families.

Lessons from the 2014 CGAP Annual Meeting in Peru

Every year, CGAP’s Council of Governors (CG) brings together more than 30 international organizations committed to global financial inclusion. This year’s CG Meeting took place in Urubamba, a small community in the outskirts of Cusco, in Peru.

Don’t Forget the Value Proposition for G2P E-Payment Recipients

Theory indicates that G2P payments can be a gateway to financial inclusion, but behavior on the ground suggests that receiving social cash transfers electronically has not influenced recipients to become e-payment users in general.

Infrastructure, Consistency are the Backbone of G2P E-Payments

A new Focus Note examines the opportunities and challenges involved in implementing social cash transfer schemes in Uganda, Haiti, the Philippines, and Kenya

Killer Apps in China: Social Networks and Financial Inclusion

In China, financial services offered through social media have recently begun to take off, with interesting potential to expand financial inclusion.

Postal Savings Bank of China: Inclusive Finance in Rural China

The Postal Savings Bank of China has five advantages over the "big 4" commercial banks when it comes to serving the rural population.