Blog

Expanding Water Services with Digital Finance

Upon realizing that rural community water projects were often unsustainable due to poor accounting systems, Grundfos conceptualized a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) model that improves community water management by increasing transparency and reducing the reliance on cash.

Increasing Clean Energy Access through Digital Finance

Angaza is one of many new businesses helping to increase access to clean energy by providing innovative financing options.

Addressing Big Development Challenges with Financial Innovation

Financial innovation has great potential to help solve big development challenges in access to energy, water, education, health and agriculture.

Electronic Delivery of Cash Transfers in India: The Agent Story

The G2P ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh offers an opportunity to advance financial inclusion, and also offers many lessons as direct benefit transfers are rolled out across India.

Technology is not Actually a Barrier for Very Poor G2P Recipients

For recipients of social cash transfers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, technology - whether a smart card or mobile phone - is rarely a barrier to use for recipients.

Is it Reasonable to Expect DFIs to Build Markets?

Beyond investing in individual MFIs, how can DFIs facilitate broader development of pro-poor financial service markets?

Advancing Financial Inclusion for Women in Africa

This blog discusses what role policy makers and regulators can play to advance financial inclusion for women in Africa.

Closing the MSME Credit Gap for the Informal Sector

An estimated 80 percent of enterprises in developing economies - approximately 280-340 million - are informal firm. Bringing these enterprises into the formal sector requires specialized approaches, due to the varying degree of informality across countries.

What If The Poor Weren't Marginalized?

The 2013 CGAP Photo Contest Winners showcases how poor people's lives are made better if they are not marginalized financially.

Jipange KuSave, M-Shwari, and the Influence of Startups

Even though startups often fail, their ideas and lessons can inform the next innovations in expanding access to financial services. The case of Jipange KuSave and M-Shwari is a great example of how one "failed" startup can enabling another's success.

Closing the Credit Gap for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Micro, small and medium enterprises face many obstacles in developing countries, but access to finance remains by far the most cited obstacle experienced by firms trying to formalize, grow and increase productivity.

Can MFIs Leverage Mobile Banking to Serve Customers Better?

When given the choice of using a mobile payment platform - bKash - or a traditional bank branch, 42% of business borrowers in a BRAC pilot chose to use both options for making payments.

The Worrying Trend of Interest Rate Caps in Africa

Many countries in Africa have established interest rate ceilings to protect consumers from high interest rates charged by microlenders. However, despite good intentions, interest rate ceilings can actually hurt low-income populations by limiting their access to finance and reducing price transparency.

FinMark Trust and Financial Market Development in South Africa

At a time when neither the government nor the private sector in South Africa were clear about the obstacles to reaching the base of the pyramid with financial services, FinMark Trust demonstrated how an effective market facilitator can develop an evidence base to inform policy and approaches.

FI2020: Scarcity, Tunneling and Financial Inclusion

The pressure and distraction of living in scarcity - constantly having too little and constantly worrying about making day-to-day ends meet - ultimately affects poor people's decision-making abilities. Evidence suggests that this "scarcity" framework has serious implications for financial inclusion, especially regarding the uptake of new products and services.

Using Mobile Banking for New Microfinance Business Models

BanKO is starting to blur the lines between microfinance and mobile banking by leveraging a network of agents to manage remote customer registration and due diligence, helping it to run more efficiently and at lower costs.

Understanding Customers for Financial Innovation in Ghana

The branchless banking market in Ghana is promising but has not gained traction as expected. CGAP and Tigo Cash decided to collaborate in order to better understand what’s preventing Ghanaian customers from actively using mobile money.

Why do Partnerships in Mobile Financial Services Struggle?

Mobile financial services implementations are structurally complex, and success can depend on building commercial partnerships between financial institutions, mobile network operators, agent network managers and service providers. However, these partnerships are complicated and can be difficult to forge.

Public Funds Should Catalyze, Not Crowd Out, Private Investment

Once a private financial market is well-developed, public funding should be aimed at catalyzing private investment at an affordable price and crowding-in more private financial providers.

Mobile Wallets: Is a Transition Underway in Bangladesh?

E-wallet use is becoming more common in Bangladesh. However, OTC transactions are still very popular and will likely remain so until the process of opening an e-wallet account and using it regularly become easier for and more attractive to the poor.