Articles by Oscar Abello
-
Thursday
June 9
2011Playing Politics: Women (Truly) Empowering Women in Bangladesh
As with so many other causes, women’s empowerment, can always be trumped by politics. But in 2001, 24 women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh came together to change those politics. At the helm was Selima Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI). By 2010, BWCCI counted 2,500 women-owned businesses as members.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Wednesday
June 1
2011Thinking About the Box – Not Just Outside of It
’Think outside of the box’ is one of the most clich?d expressions in English. But when’s the last time we actually defined the box? In her book, Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development, Cal-Berkeley Professor Ananya Roy not only defines the dominant boxes of development, but unpacks their paradoxes, hypocrisy, and absurdities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Wednesday
April 27
2011Time to Grow Up: Financing SMEs With Local Capital
While impact investing and multilateral SME financing are encouraging trends, could they also undermine the journey to adulthood for financial sectors in developing economies? Too much foreign capital from impact investors or multilateral development banks could stunt the growth of financial sectors to can finance SMEs on their own.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Tuesday
April 19
2011Can Microfinance Ignite a Good Governance Epidemic?
By serving as examples of effective corporate governance, microfinance providers could succeed where so many financial institutions have failed and in ’infect’ their client and community networks with the ’disease’ of strong corporate governance. With almost 3 billion unbanked people still to reach, those are huge potential networks to infect.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Thursday
April 7
2011Is 2011 Ghana’s 1978? New National Pension Fund Scheme Could Repeat History
In 1978, U.S. regulations changed to allow pension funds to invest in private equity (PE) firms, including venture capital groups, creating a tsunami of capital to new and growing firms. This year, key changes from Ghana’s 2008 pension law come into effect that might lead to a similar explosion in private equity and venture capital.
- Categories
- Investing
-
Tuesday
March 29
2011From Inventions to Ventures: NCIIA?s 2011 Open Minds Showcase
Last weekend, dozens of teams took part in National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) Open Minds showcase. NCIIA was established in 1995 with support from the Lemelson Foundation to advance experiential learning for technology innovation and entrepreneurship on university campuses and classrooms. Several teams focused on the BoP.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Thursday
March 24
2011Transforming Deserts: The 2011 International Property Rights Index
The 2011 International Property Rights Index (IPRI) was released last week, bringing to mind a vital - yet overlooked - global development debate about the role of property rights in improving economic opportunities at the base of the pyramid. In fact, property rights alone are rarely enough to spur financial sectors into small business lending.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Thursday
March 17
2011Egypt’s 800-Billion Pound Gorilla
With an estimated 800 billion Egyptian Pounds ($136 billion) in domestic deposits, you’d think Egyptian banks should have plenty of loans and credit available for Egyptian small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs). Not quite; considering the fact that Egyptian government debt held domestically is nearly the same amount.
- Categories
- Uncategorized