// By Obinna Chima, This Day Live In line with its desire of achieving financial inclusion in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it is currently reviewing the various bank charges in the country. In fact, the apex bank said it’s ‘Guide to Bank Charges,’ which was issued to the industry several years ago was with a view to... 

// By Daniel Osunkoya, 234Next.com Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), a non-profit research organisation, hosted her quarterly innovation forum recently to evaluate the opportunities, challenges and innovation in product design for implementing micro-insurance for the mass market. The organisation in its ‘EFInA Access to Financial... 

From Daily Champion Commissioner for Insurance and chief executive officer of Natinal Insurance Commission (NAICOM) Mr. Fola Daniel has described Micro/Grass Roots Insurance as a product designed to provide appropriate services to Nigerians at an affordable cost. He made the assertion at the presentation of Grass Roots Insurance held at the new NAICOM... 

// By Shawn Parr. psfk During a recent visit to the Michelin Corporate Services headquarters outside of Greenville, South Carolina, their CEO was proud to share an initiative where Michelin had allocated about $2 million for lending to local small businesses in light of the recent economic crisis. The initiative has been very successful in helping... 

// Somasroy Chakraborty, Business Standard Various banks have taken control of Hyderabad-based microfinance firm Trident Microfin by acquiring a majority stake in the firm, leaving promoter and chief executive Kishore Kumar Puli with a stake of only 4.2 per cent. As many as 20 banks, including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Indian Overseas... 

By James Barton, Developing Telecoms Mobile money services have been launched in Nigeria by Lonestar Cell GSM, a member of the MTN Group. The service is being offered in partnership with Ecobank Liberia. Mobile financial services have been adopted in several African countries as although many Africans have mobile phones, a relatively small percentage... 

By Mary Aurupai and Sarah Armstrong,USAID/South Sudan In order to strengthen the financial sector in South Sudan and help provide small entrepreneurs access to credit, USAID is funding the Finance Sudan Limited (FSL) Program, established in 2006 as one of the only microfinance lenders in the country. Adam is one of FSL’s beneficiaries in Juba. In... 

// From The Economic Times KOLKATA: The lull seems to be over. After spending a nine-month hibernation after the Andhra Pradesh MFI crisis, leading private equity (PE) players are again on the prowl to make a fortune in the country’s micro finance space as the sector is crawling back to normalcy. Equity deals worth $62 million (around 280... 

// By Obinna Chima, This Day Live The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Wednesday  restated the need for the introduction of non-interest banking in Nigeria, saying that considering its population size, the country is potentially the largest market for this form of banking in Africa. CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, made this remark in... 

// By Pretti Mehra, The Hindu Business Line Banks have started using newspapers and public hoardings to shame debtors into paying up their dues. The shift from recovery agents to creating peer pressure was prompted by an RBI order, which targets defaults exceeding Rs 25 lakh. Recovery agents arm-twisting loan defaulters may be a thing of the...