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Ripple donates £7.7M to Mercy Corps to boost financial inclusion

source-logo  invezz.com 18 October 2020 00:30, UTC

Ripple has donated £7.73 million to Mercy Corps, a non-governmental humanitarian aid organization, which seeks to create economic opportunities in countries that have flawed financial systems. Ripple unveiled this news via an official announcement, noting that this contribution seeks to help Mercy Corps expand financial inclusion and boost economic empowerment across the globe. Reportedly, Ripple will also let the NGO leverage its digital assets in its work of financial inclusion.

Per the announcement, Mercy Corps has allegedly helped more than 220 million people survive a wide range of humanitarian conflicts. Through collaborating with Ripple and its non-profit arm, RippleWorks, the organization aims to leverage various digital financial technologies such as distributed ledgers, and cryptocurrencies to enhance financial inclusion in emerging markets over a three-year project. Ripple went on to unveil that it is already working with Mercy Corps Ventures to identify viable pilots and invest in early-stage startups in the Global South and Latin America regions.

Apart from this, Ripple disclosed that its contribution will support the education of Mercy Corps’ field staff, who will be tasked with using digital financial solutions to resolve the financial difficulties that people in the aforementioned regions are facing. Through this initiative, Mercy Corps seeks to have addressed financial challenges affecting 10 million people over the next 10 years.

Disrupting the existing antiquated financial system

Explaining how this partnership marks a major milestone toward ensuring financial inclusion, Mercy Corps Ventures’ Senior Managing Director, Scott Onder said,

“The existing financial system is fragmented, antiquated, and exclusionary–leaving 1.7B people unbanked and disproportionately excluding women. Emerging fintech, crypto and blockchain technologies have the potential to radically transform it, but there are substantial risks for the world’s most vulnerable people if their needs are not taken into consideration as these new technologies are designed and deployed. We are going to leverage our global resources and reach to ensure community voices are heard and vulnerable populations are not left behind in the fintech revolution.”

Through Ripple’s and RippleWorks’ contribution, Mercy Corps and Mercy Corps Ventures will also be able to roll out a joint project dubbed FinX. Reportedly, this initiative aims to enhance financial inclusion in struggling markets by focusing on products built around distributed ledger technologies.

invezz.com