• What we do
  • The People
  • About Us
  • Why Innovation Africa
  • Contact Us
Innovation AfricaCreating the Future Today
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • New USAID Handbook: Digital Finance for Development

    May 12, 2015 Editor 0

     

    The Digital Financial Services for Development Handbook was developed by USAID and FHI360 for use by USAID personnel to maximize the Agency’s use of and contribution to the growth of digital financial services in emerging markets around the world.

    As an Agency, USAID brings significant comparative advantages to the collective effort required to build out financial services and market infrastructure that serve the poor and create pathways out of poverty. The Handbook is for use across USAID, though content is often framed with a Mission perspective in mind. It explores practical ways in which USAID personnel can advance digital financial services in support of USAID’s mission: partnering to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient, democratic societies.

    Why does USAID see value in strengthening and using inclusive digital financial services?

    Access to finance is not a banking challenge. It’s a livelihoods challenge and an empowerment challenge that cuts across all sectors (particularly with respect to gender and rural communities). If we resolve this challenge, we can transform lives by improving economic resilience and creating new market opportunities.

    Although evidence substantiates the importance of financial inclusion to broad-based development, many of the world’s poor remain excluded from financial services because they are simply too expensive to deliver through traditional banking models (see Figure 1). But the prospects for deepening financial inclusion are bright for two reasons:

    • the incredible, rapid growth of connected technologies, especially mobile telephone infrastructure; and
    • the advent of branchless banking models that, when paired with the mobile phone, can make a host of useful services and products possible.

    Together, these two elements constitute a key market infrastructure for a new, highly accessible digital economy that upends long-standing constraints to traditional business models. The value of this market infrastructure—digital financial services—is apparent in at least three broad ways:

    1. reducing loss (tied to theft, time, corruption, and business processes);
    2. increasing social protection (by enabling fast, secure transfers and extending saving, insurance, and credit services); and
    3. creating new market opportunities (for new business models, products, and services in every sector).

    A central message of this handbook is that a digital financial services ecosystem is a key means to many ends. In addition to helping to expand financial inclusion, it can also be used as a channel to achieve other development outcomes. For example, it can be used to facilitate conditional cash transfers aimed at increasing school attendance, improve agricultural yields for smallholder farmers, and extend the reach of critical services such as power and water.

    The Digital Financial Services for Development Handbook is intended to be used in concert with other resources being developed by USAID to equip its staff to harness the power of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D).

    Related Posts

    • Digital Finance: The View from USAID and the Financing Growth Microlinks Blog Series
    • The Most Influential USAID Paragraph on Mobile Money
    • New USAID Handbook: How to Integrate Mobile Solutions into Development Projects
    • Women Gain When You Give Poor People Cash via Mobile Money
    • How Will You Be Compliant with USAID Open Data Policy ADS 579?

    Go to SourceReprinted from ICTWorks

    Related Posts

    • With what could Professor’s Paul Bran Economic Thinking Help Us Today, in Full Process of Search of New Theories and New Objectives in the Economic and Financial-Monetary Practice and Science?
    • ICT opportunities in the health sector by I-TECH Kenya @ Nairobi Research BuzzICT opportunities in the health sector by I-TECH Kenya @ Nairobi Research Buzz
    • Demand for energy efficient solutions expected to grow across region
    • Mobile Web East Africa 2013 | 19-21 February, 2013 | Southern Sun
    • Stimulating learning about social entrepreneurship through income generation projectsStimulating learning about social entrepreneurship through income generation projects
    • Airtel and Warid Innovate as Sim Registration Deadline Draws NearAirtel and Warid Innovate as Sim Registration Deadline Draws Near
    Sovrn
    Share

    Categories: ICT

    Tags: Digital Finance for Development

    Solar Lighting PAYG Systems Are Illuminating Southern Africa Opportunities 8 Considerations for Better Mobile Learning Solutions for Women

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

Subscribe to our stories


 

Recent Posts

  • Entrepreneurial Alertness, Innovation Modes, And Business Models in Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises December 30, 2021
  • The Strategic Role of Design in Driving Digital Innovation June 10, 2021
  • Correction to: Hybrid mosquitoes? Evidence from rural Tanzania on how local communities conceptualize and respond to modified mosquitoes as a tool for malaria control June 10, 2021
  • BRIEF FOCUS: Optimal spacing for groundnuts in smallholder farming systems June 9, 2021
  • COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa June 9, 2021

Categories

Archives

Popular Post-All time

  • A review on biomass-based... 1k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt ge... 762 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 755 views
  • Prize-winning projects pr... 716 views
  • Test Your Value Propositi... 688 views

Recent Posts

  • Entrepreneurial Alertness, Innovation Modes, And Business Models in Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises
  • The Strategic Role of Design in Driving Digital Innovation
  • Correction to: Hybrid mosquitoes? Evidence from rural Tanzania on how local communities conceptualize and respond to modified mosquitoes as a tool for malaria control
  • BRIEF FOCUS: Optimal spacing for groundnuts in smallholder farming systems
  • COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa
  • Explicit knowledge networks and their relationship with productivity in SMEs
  • Intellectual property issues in artificial intelligence: specific reference to the service sector
  • Africa RISING publishes a livestock feed and forage production manual for Ethiopia
  • Transforming crop residues into a precious feed resource for small ruminants in northern Ghana
  • Photo report: West Africa project partners cap off 2020 with farmers field day events in Northern Ghana and Southern Mali

Tag Cloud

    africa African Agriculture Business Business model Business_Finance Company Crowdsourcing data Development East Africa economics Education Entrepreneur entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship ethiopia ghana Health_Medical_Pharma ict Information technology Innovation kenya knowledge Knowledge Management Leadership marketing mobile Mobile phone nigeria Open innovation Organization Research rwanda science Science and technology studies social enterprise social entrepreneurship south africa Strategic management strategy tanzania Technology Technology_Internet uganda

Categories

Archives

  • A review on biomass-based hydrogen production for renewable energy supply 1k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt gender inequality? 762 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Big Data Innovations in Agriculture 755 views
  • Prize-winning projects promote healthier eating, smarter crop investments 716 views
  • Test Your Value Proposition: Supercharge Lean Startup and CustDev Principles 688 views

Copyright © 2005-2020 Innovation Africa Theme created by PWT. Powered by WordPress.org