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Tapping the Potential of Catalytic Carbon Finance: Could This Collaborative Approach Unlock Scale in Africa’s Off-Grid Solar Sector?
Addressing Africa's growing demand for reliable, renewable energy is essential for the continent's sustainable economic development. But as Peter Simiyu at EcoSecurities explains, despite Africa's ample clean energy resources, just 2% of renewable energy investments have been channelled to the region in the past decade. He explores how an innovative approach to catalytic carbon finance could help provide the funding businesses need to kick-start off-grid power deployment, enabling Africa to lead the global shift toward clean energy.
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- Energy, Environment, Investing
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Africa’s Startups Need Patient Capital: Could the African Diaspora Help Provide it?
African startup funding amounts to a tiny fraction of global venture capital (VC), and these investments are often concentrated on sectors like fintech and e-commerce. As a result, as Kristin H. Wilson at Innovate Africa Fund argues, African founders often lack the capital and incentive to tackle the continent’s biggest development challenges. She proposes a new approach to funding innovative African-made solutions to these issues — one that leverages the capital and entrepreneurial expertise of the African diaspora.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2024: Congratulations to the Three Winners
NextBillion's “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest has been a yearly tradition since 2012. The contest highlights 12 of our most-read articles from the past year and gives readers the opportunity to vote for their favorites. Here are our three Most Influential Articles of 2024, as selected by our readers.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2024: Vote for Your Favorites by Jan. 5
As we bid farewell to an eventful year, it's time for NextBillion’s annual tradition: our “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest. Each December since 2012, we've selected 12 of our most-read articles from the past year, inviting readers to vote for the ones that influenced their thinking the most. Check out the articles in this year's contest (if you haven't already), and vote for your favorites: You can vote up to once per hour between Dec. 18 and 11:59 pm EST on Jan. 5.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Impact Investing in Turbulent Times: Opportunity Amid Uncertainty
Impact investing, much like the world around us, is facing a period of prolonged turbulence, as the interconnected shocks of 2024 — from the escalating climate crisis to rising geopolitical tension — raise doubts about whether the sector can grow fast enough to make a difference. But as Florian Kemmerich at KOIS argues, the need to solve these crises may ultimately become the impetus for true scale in the industry. He explores how innovative investments can address some key global crises, and shares reasons for optimism amid the uncertainty.
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- Education, Environment, Health Care, Investing
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Subsidy and Synergy: How Philanthropy Can Complement Impact Investing More Effectively
The original goal of impact investing was to build out the funding spectrum between philanthropy and commercial investment. But according to Asad Mahmood at SIMA and Nanno Kleiterp, the arrival of private equity firms — promising scale and market-rate financial returns — has pulled all the sector's energy toward the commercial end of the spectrum. They explore the key role philanthropic subsidy has played in the development of emerging markets business, clarify some misconceptions about its role in impact investing, and propose some ways philanthropists and impact investors can better align their efforts.
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- Energy, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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You Can’t Have Global Standards Without the Global South: Why Emerging Markets Must Lead the Way in Driving Impact Reporting Transparency
In recent years, global standard-setting bodies have released widely adopted impact reporting standards, designed to ensure that companies disclose sustainability- and climate-related information alongside their financial statements. Though these standards are a huge step forward for global impact transparency, Ibukun Awosika argues that they reveal a troubling power dynamic between developed and emerging markets. She explores how key voices in the Global South were left out of the process of developing these standards, and proposes two changes that can ensure a greater role for them going forward.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Navigating the Financing Paradox for WSMEs: Workable Solutions for Increasing Financial Inclusion Among Women-Owned or -Led Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
In Africa, an estimated $42 billion financing gap exists for small and medium-sized enterprises owned or led by women (WSMEs). According to Nathalie Gogue-Ebo, Crystal Mugimba, Millie Maina and Shiemaa Ahmed at Open Capital, this gap has persisted despite the fact that women own the majority of the continent’s SMEs, and that globally, they default on their loans at a rate 53% lower than men. They explore the main roadblocks facing African WSMEs, and share some solutions that can ensure that these women entrepreneurs have access to the capital they need to thrive.
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