The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), a US-based agency of the UN that focuses on financial inclusion and other forms of sustainable development, recently launched a three-year collaboration with Singapore-based Singtel to extend the company’s remittance services to Myanmar. Singtel, which provides telecommunication 650 million customers in 21 countries, will leverage its Dash app to allow customers in Singapore to send money to individuals in Myanmar via mobile phone by March 2019.
As of 2018, Singtel has total assets of SGD 48.2 million (USD 35.5 million), return on equity of 18.8 percent and return on invested capital of 14.7 percent. The firm is controlled by the Singaporean government’s Temasek Holdings.
UNCDF, which was founded in 1961, works to deliver poor people in the world’s 47 least developed countries “capital and technical support through Inclusive Finance programmes to ensure that more households and small businesses gain access to financial services.” The organization also finances projects relating to job creation, economic empowerment for women, clean energy, food security and resilience to climate change. In 2017, UNCDF received USD 60.3 million in contributions. During that year it supported 138 financial service providers that report achieving an increase in client deposits totaling USD 6.5 billion.
Research Associate, Tiannah Steele
Sources and Additional Resources
Singtel press release
https://www.singtel.com/about-Us/news-releases/singtels-dash-enters-into-partnership-with-uncdf-to-expand-mobile-remitance-s
Singtel homepage
https://www.singtel.com/
Singtel 2018 annual report
https://www.singtel.com/content/dam/singtel/investorRelations/annualReports/2018/singtel-annual-report-2018.pdf
About Temasek
https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/who-we-are/about-us.html
UNCDF homepage
http://www.uncdf.org
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Government of Luxembourg Pledges $1.4m to UNCDF for Work Toward SDGs Including Microfinance
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-government-of-luxembourg-pledges-1-4m-to-uncdf-for-work-toward-sdgs-including-microfinance/
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