With data science strengthening its power and influence over us, a certain community is growingincreasingly curious: why do most data collected belong to White or Asian persons? Why are dataanalysis and research highly limited to user experience improvement? Why, despite the privatesector utilising data so well to improve their business, are public…

What advancements could the agricultural sector anticipate due to the developments in the mobile industry? The mobile revolution has favoured many sectors of the economy, with industries as varied as fashion, gaming and real estate, to name but a few, all finding innovative ways to leverage its growth. One industry sector that's worth taking a clos…

With the ongoing pandemic calling out for increased mobility in every industry, the mobile money and fintech sectors are moving fast to cater to its diverging market. Director of Strategic Projects at MFS Africa, Nika Naghavi, joins hosts Janet Shutlist and Arunjay Katakam on the Last Billion podcast to offer her extensive knowledge about the past,…

In this episode, host Janet Shulist facilitates a debate between Arunjay Katakam, futurist and entrepreneur and Nika Naghavi, Director of Data and Insights for the Mobile Money Program at the GSMA. Arunjay and Nika debate the future of mobile money in developing countries, with Nika representing the MNOs and Arunjay representing Fintechs and over-t…

Welcome to the last billion podcast. This is a regular podcast that shines a light on the people, programs and tools that aim to end poverty for the last billion people in the next 10 years.

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through recent news: 1. Tech speeding up aid operations in 2019 http://news.trust.org/item/20191217232954-gshlg/ 2. The threat to MNOs is finally here, it's not Banks, it's not Facebook/WhatsApp/Google, etc and it is not mainstream Chinese players Alibaba and Tencent (at least not yet). The treat…

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through recent news: 1. MTN Nigeria launches mobile money agent service https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/money-home-banner/mtn-nigeria-launches-mobile-money-agent-service/ 2. Thinking through an EdTech Readiness Index https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/new-global-edtech-readiness…

This week we have a special guest on the show: Nika Naghavi (@naghavinika) to discuss GSMA's m360 Africa conference last month in Kigali, Rwanda. Nika is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunit…

This week, our hosts Jenny Frydrych (@jennyfrydrych) and Arunjay Katakam (@arunjay) talk about digitising humanitarian payments, based on a paper Jenny wrote: Humanitarian Payment Digitisation: Focus On Uganda’s Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement You can download the full paper here: http://bit.ly/2LQLUl0 Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Le…

Our hosts Janet Shulist (@janshu) and Arunjay Katakam (@arunjay) take you through this week's news: 1. Digital governance innovation in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh (India) https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/digital-governance-krishna-glimpse-future-working-paper.pdf 2. Big Data, Big Opportunity: Is Data Science the Key to Universal Ener…

This week we have a very special guest on the show: Nika Naghavi Nika is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunities within the Mobile Money sector with a focus on emerging use cases, business m…

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through this week's news: 1. Mobile payments are revamping the way that education is financed: https://t.co/fM2b5fwnPI?amp=1 2. UK aid (DFID) partners to launch world's biggest EdTech hub: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-aid-funds-worlds-biggest-educational-technology-research-project 3. Li…

Our hosts Jenny Frydrych and Arunjay Katakam take you through this week's news: 1. Facebook announces its crypto coin: Libra 2. The impact of Huawei ban for Africa 3. Female Focus Fintech prize https://dfslab.net/f3prize/ https://live.ft.com/Events/FT-IFC-Transformational-Business-Conference-and-Awards-Dinner-2019 and Insights from the DRC: Agent N…

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through this week's news: 1. Results from the 2019 Global ICT4D Survey 2. LeapFrog breaks impact investing record, with $700M emerging markets fund, surging past its $600m target 3. Facebook picks London to drive WhatsApp mobile payments Globally 4. UN Global Pulse is using AI to analyse radio co…

A brief introduction to M4D Insider - a regular podcast covering the latest news, research and analysis of mobile, digital and ICT tools for improving development outcomes around the globe.