Featured: ImpactAlpha Original
Alt-credit and mobile-money apps give African fintechs a closeup view of climate risks – and opportunities. Financial technology firms have leveraged billions of data points across mobile phones and social media to transform loan underwriting for the emerging consumer class. In turn, data from those users is providing fintech service providers real-time insight into something else: the accelerating climate impacts on farmers and rural communities and the urban poor. In Africa, demand for climate data is growing across supply chains to underwrite micro-insurance for farmers and logistics operators, hedge supply-chain risk, and also create a variety of derivatives and other sophisticated products. “Fintech can supercharge the reach and affordability of solutions that have the potential to reduce the exposure of climate vulnerable populations and help them with preparedness,” says