Mobile for Development Blog

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Smallholder loans pilot in Papua New Guinea: what did farmers have to say about the service and has it enhanced their access to finance?

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The GSMA AgriTech programme, in partnership with a consortium of local partners, supported the launch of a loan service – Rural loan – for vanilla farmers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with the support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). ...

Mobile money in Tanzania: Unveiling the vision of Tigo Pesa  

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Following the launch of the State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023, the GSMA Mobile Money Programme has spoken to senior mobile money executives on their view of the state of the industry. We spoke to Angelica Pesha, Chief Officer for Mobile Financial Services at ...

Sesame Workshop Impact Story: Supporting children in response to humanitarian emergencies in MENA 

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Over the past three years multiple disasters have impacted populations in the Middle East and North Africa – including the Beirut port explosion, Türkiye-Syria earthquakes and the ongoing violence in Sudan. Sesame Workshop’s Ahlan Simsim initiative, which received a ...

Mobile money in Myanmar: Wave Money on financial inclusion

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Following the launch of the State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023, the GSMA Mobile Money Programme has spoken to senior mobile money executives on their view of the state of the industry. We spoke to Htin Hlaing, Chief Technology Officer at Wave Money Myanmar. ...

Join the GSMA Digital Utilities team at World Water Week 2023

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This year’s World Water Week theme is, ‘ Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World’, and the Digital Utilities Programme have been working with the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) as a key collaborating partner in organising the ...

Announcing the GSMA AgriTech Accelerator cohort members

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The world’s 500 million smallholder farmers, responsible for nearly 70% of the world’s food production, are grappling with the escalating impact of climate change and extreme weather events. These events pose a significant threat to their livelihoods, as they often do ...

Scaling e-commerce in Africa; why trust is key 

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GSMA Mobile for Development, in partnership with the UK Department of Business and Trade, is undertaking research with micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, to understand pathways, opportunities and ...

Digital Innovation for Inclusive WASH: Takeaways from Kenya’s 2023 Water and Sanitation Conference 

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The GSMA Digital Utilities programme was part of the Kenya Water & Sanitation International Conference & Exhibition 2023, held in the vibrant city of Mombasa. The event brought together a diverse array of stakeholders, including government representatives, ...

Profiling Start-up Public Sector Partnerships for Improved Utility Services in APAC

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Asia is set to account for around 70% of global economic growth in 2023. The region is dominated by emerging and developing economies, and at $31 trillion, produces over a third of the world’s GDP. By 2030, Asia will add another circa $15 trillion to ...

IoT and Digital Payments: A game changer for results-based financing? 

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We would like to thank Susan Smith, VP Finance Solution, Public Sector at Odyssey, for her input on this blog. Results-based financing (RBF) is a development financing and public policy approach that seeks to link payments to the achievement of specific results or ...

Impact story: The GSMA’s ‘Bridging the Mobile Gender Gap’ Capacity Building course

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The GSMA’s Bridging the Mobile Gender Gap (BMGG) course helps policymakers and regulators understand the size and drivers of the mobile gender gap in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and provides insights and recommendations on how to improve digital inclusion ...

Mobile money could add $5.3 billion to Ethiopia’s GDP

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Today we launch our new report Mobile Money in Ethiopia: Advancing financial inclusion and driving growth. The much anticipated liberalisation of the telecoms market is presenting an opportunity to advance economic development in the country, including the financial ...

Working towards digital and financial inclusion of women in Asia and the Pacific

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Digital technologies are a gamechanger, able to reach the “last mile” and empowering women with unprecedented access to information, services, and opportunities. In 2023, digital technologies were the focus of the Commission of the Status of Women and International Women’s ...

Mobile Money in Angola: How Afrimoney is paving the way 

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The arrival of Africell Angola in 2022 has brought a host of exciting opportunities for mobile users seeking a wider selection of services – including financial services. After a successful entry into Angola’s telecoms landscape, Africell officially launched its mobile ...

Promoting an enabling policy space for faster digitalisation outcomes in Tanzania (Part 4) 

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The fourth and last part of our blog series on Tanzania’s digitalisation journey looks at the country’s guiding policies and key national targets, their efficiency and impact, and the influencing actors in policymaking.   In the past few years, the Government of ...

Unpacking women’s use of mobile money

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With the launch of this year’s SOTIR comes new insights regarding gender and mobile money alongside better understanding on how to reduce the gender gap in women’s usage. However, while there have been substantial gains in mobile-led financial inclusion over the last few ...

Mobile Money International Remittances: Saving the Day Amidst Economic Woes

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As the world began to recover from the economic ramifications of COVID-19, 2023 saw further turmoil and even recession. In fact, the OECD projects global GDP growth in 2023 to be 2.7%, which is the lowest annual rate since the global financial crisis, except for the 2020 ...

The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2023

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Women’s rate of mobile internet adoption has slowed for the second year in a row In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), mobile phones are the primary and often only way people get online, especially women. More than 3.4 billion people in LMICs now access the internet ...

Scaling digital innovation in emerging economies: Key takeaways from the webinar

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On Tuesday 16 May, we hosted an event discussing the GSMA Innovation Fund’s latest report, “Scaling Digital Innovation in Emerging Economies”. The report analyses the scaling journeys of 21 start-ups supported by GSMA Mobile for Development and considers pathways ...

Four ways to drive adoption and usage of mobile-enabled services among underserved women: Lessons from the GSMA Innovation Fund

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3.2 billion of the unconnected population worldwide live within the footprint of a mobile broadband network but are not using mobile internet – the vast majority of them live in low- and-middle-income countries (LMICs). This usage gap is more pronounced among women, who are ...