Banking agents in Peru…

Posted on 9. February 2015 by hannah

2014_peru_bancodelanacion_03CGAP recently launched a CGAP brief “Driving Scale and Density of Agent Networks in Perú” based on a CGAP-led research on 26,000 banking agents and 24 million monthly transactions to describe the relationship among factors that will help these agent networks to operate viably in more remote areas of the country. Continue reading →

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Kenya Financial Diaries – How do low-income households manage their money ?

Posted on 1. February 2015 by hannah

FSDKWouldn´t it be great to better understand the financial lives of low-income clients? How they prefer to save, to whom they lend money to borrow from them at a later stage, how many times they experience a family emergency, etc. etc. etc. This kind of data was presented in August 2014 in the Kenya Financial Diaries. Continue reading →

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Another global, messy, problem? BANKING!

Posted on 26. January 2015 by hannah

Active mobile money accounts per 1000 users (2013)I just found another blog about The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which just launched their Annual Letter showing clearly that after having taken on global problems like the design of toilets and condoms even creating urine-powered fuel cells, their next big ambition to tackle will be…. BANKING! Continue reading →

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Investing in LMDF? I get 5 times what I would get at the bank!

Posted on 22. January 2015 by hannah

indexI guess many of you have also been disappointed by current rates on savings accounts, money market funds, etc. In June 2014, in Luxembourg, I would have gotten 0,4% at the Spuerkees, at Fortuna, and BGL, and 0,5% at ING. At that time, inflation was at 0,85%.

Even with my little financial understanding, I do get that by keeping money in these banks, I will lose around 0,35 to 0,45% of my cash per year. Ok, this might not be much, but might there not be a better solution… Continue reading →

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“Twenty little Procredits….

Posted on 25. December 2014 by hannah

Some were laughing and thought I was crazy, some got really angry at me for asking an obvious question, others wanted to better understand the underlying strategy.

imageAnd for me the topic is almost personal. I spent 3 years as Managing Director with Procreditbank Congo in Kinshasa. A job during which I probably learned the most about microfinance operations, which many times pushed me out of my comfort zone, and which let to get me know an amazing but crazy country. I saw how good Procredit is, at what they do, and it hurts me when they start selling their banks now. In my last blog in September 2014 on the topic I wrote about Ghana and Mozambique. Now it seems that the sales strategy is being continued in Latinamerica: Continue reading →

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Does inclusive finance exclude agricultural producers ?

Posted on 17. December 2014 by hannah

I am not sure if this title is really what was meant with the presentation given by a federation of cooperatives from Niger, FUCOPRI.

INFINE, the Inclusive Finance Network in Luxembourg, had invited Thierry Defense, Director of SOS Faim who moderated a presentation and Q&A session with Mr Ayouba Hassane, Director of FUCOPRI (Federation of Rice Producers Coopératives Niger).

FUCOPRI is a federation of 9 unions of 37 cooperatives of rice producers in the Niger river valley.  The federation has been fairly active in accessing loans from banks and other entities which are channeled via FUCOPRI to its members.

So does inclusive finance really exclude farmers ? Continue reading →

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Innovating in the PAMIGA network – the story of Buusaa Gonofaa in Ethiopia

Posted on 16. November 2014 by hannah

Foto 1Buusaa Gonofaa is one of 14 Pamiga network members which I visited during the networks CEO meeting in November 2014. Just to list a few characteristics, Buusaa Gonofaa Continue reading →

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Pamiga´s CEO Meeting 2014

Posted on 15. November 2014 by hannah

carte_zones_homeIt happened on November 5-6, 2014, it happened in Debre Zeit in Ethiopia, and it involved the CEOs of around 14 MFIs from 10 African countries all dedicated to innovating around rural finance and representing 1 million clients living in rural areas. Continue reading →

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WSJ: Mobile Money – the battle for Africa

Posted on 16. September 2014 by hannah

BF-AH999_AFMOBI_G_20140815130004The Wall Street Journal article describes how mobile phone payments grow in Africa and how operators are rushing to get a piece of the often very lucrative pie. The GSMA reports 219 mobile money deployments worldwide of which 52% are in Africa. Up to now, most stories around mobile money circled around MPesa in Kenya. Their service is now available in seven African countries and it has 16.8 million active customers, of which the vast majority are in Africa. It handles more than $1 billion in transactions per month in Kenya alone and it charges about 1% of the total amount being sent. Continue reading →

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More Kinshasa in tunes..

Posted on 12. September 2014 by hannah

It has always been very exciting to talk about music in the DRC. Congolese music is famous around Africa. However, in my blog from 2008 “Kinshasa in tunes…” , I was writing more about sounds you find on the streets, on markets, and among people.

Last week, Katrina Manson, the Financial Times Africa correspondent whom I was happy enough to meet during my time in Kinshasa from 2008 to 2011, produced a movie on exactly the same topic: “Kinshasa – Moving to Congo´s beat”.

Listen to it!

 

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