This partnership is poised to significantly narrow the financial inclusion gap, streamlining the processes of money transfer, savings, and credit accessibility for individuals.

The grant will allow Opportunity International to provide micro and small business loans, digital tools and specialized technical training to women-led small- and micro businesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

Quest Digital Finance, a Ugandan tech company, is placing the power of banking and service delivery in the palms of the farmers and entrepreneurs using its digital platforms.

With the issuance of this Green Bond, Zuoli will finance, amongst others, green buildings and energy efficiency projects in the Zhejiang province.

The new investments include a $5M local currency facility for Uganda from Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI), $6M from existing lender Symbiotics, and $1M from crowdfunding platform Lendahand, all to support growth in Uganda.

Opportunity International and Oikocredit will mobilize the funds over the next three years with an initial, near-term focus on Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda.

FINCA Impact Finance, a US-based network of financial institutions, recently carried out several campaigns catering to low-income people through its affiliates in Africa and Asia.

In 2020, savings groups in refugee contexts have had the lowest late repayment rate compared to any of the other clients served by VisionFund Uganda.

Li told Reuters in an interview that in “traditional finance” investing in SMEs was rarely worthwhile for global institutions as the due diligence was difficult, risks were high and funding amounts small.

The annual survey on mobile payments showed 98 percent of respondents indicated mobile was their most commonly used payment method, up 5 percentage points from 2019.