Searching: Blogs

The Case for Off-Grid Solar Companies as Mobile Money Agents

Off-grid solar companies could boost revenue and reach more low-income customers by becoming master mobile money agents in remote areas.

Building Payment Rails in Frontier Areas Through Off-Grid Solar

Many off-grid solar companies are familiarizing customers with digital payments and helping them find mobile money agents. Should they go a step further and start managing agent networks?

Bringing Health Microinsurance to Kenyans via Mobile Phone

Bundling microinsurance with other mobile financial products is making health insurance more affordable and useful for low-income patients in Kenya.

Proximity Matters: Improving the Viability of Frontier Agents

Easy access to agents makes people more likely to use digital financial services, but business as usual has left remote communities underserved. Here are some ways governments and providers are expanding agent networks in hard-to-serve areas.

How Ghana Became One of Africa’s Top Mobile Money Markets

Mobile money account ownership tripled in Ghana from 2014 to 2017, making the country one of the fastest growing mobile money markets in Africa. How? Smart regulations played a key role.

Bank-Led Digital Finance: Who’s Really Leading?

In countries where regulators favor “bank-led” digital finance models, nonbanks are playing important – even dominant – roles in digital finance.

Open APIs in Digital Finance: How to Start Engaging Developers

To entice third-party app developers to innovate with APIs, digital financial services providers should start thinking of developers as customers and provide the right kinds of resources.

Remote Lockouts: The Dark Side of Pay-as-You-Go Solar?

Lockout technology has enabled creditors to help poor people finance solar systems and light their homes, but it’s not very popular with consumers.

East African Interoperability: Dispatches from the Home of M-Pesa

Kenyans can now send money between the country's two largest digital wallet services, Airtel and M-Pesa, the latest step toward interoperability in East Africa.

Public Clearinghouse Could Shake Up China’s Mobile Payment Market

China will soon require payments providers, including Alipay and WeChat Pay, to connect to a public online payments clearinghouse. Here’s what we know so far about how this institution will work and what it could mean for mobile payments.

Smartphones Are Common in Myanmar: Is Digital Finance Far Behind?

Smartphone penetration of 80 percent and low bank account access suggest that digital financial services will take off in Myanmar. China’s experience may offer clues about how and when this will happen.

6 Ways Microfinance Institutions Can Adapt to the Digital Age

Microfinance has a relatively good record of serving the poor in a socially responsible way. But it must adapt to continue serving those customers in the digital age, argues CGAP CEO Greta Bull.

Can Agro-Dealers Be the Last-Mile Rails for Digital Finance?

New CGAP partnerships test large agribusinesses' potential to bring financial services to millions of rural farmers.

Kenya’s Digital Credit Revolution Five Years On

It's been five years since Kenya launched its first digital credit solution. A new CGAP survey shows that one in four Kenyans has taken a digital loan, mostly for working capital and day-to-day consumption.

5 Insights into Credit Scoring for Smallholders

Agricultural lending remains a frontier area even as the alternative lending space fills up with new players. Here are some early insights from CGAP's work on alternative credit scoring for smallholder farmers in Uganda.

An Innovator’s Dilemma: Teaching Mobile Payments

The hard work of educating customers about mobile payments is increasingly falling to start ups offering services like water and solar. In Ghana, Safe Water Network is showing how this can be done in partnership with providers.

Pay-as-You-Drink: Digital Finance and Smart Water Service

A pilot in Ghana is showing that the pay-as-you-go solar model can be adapted to change how water is delivered to poor customers.

Super Platforms in Africa: Not if, but When

Super platforms like Ant Financial are likely to expand into Africa and impact financial services providers, regulators and customers.

Connecting the Dots: Interoperability and Technology

For interoperability to work, technology must do more than move transactions from Point A to Point B. It must be optimized to ensure security, encourage use, promote innovation and handle the inevitable time when something goes wrong.

Helping or Hurting? 10 Facts About Digital Credit in Tanzania

A nationally representative phone survey shows who's using digital credit, how they're using it, and whether it's living up to the hype of helping families cope with emergencies.