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Beyond Shock, Money or Mandate: Why African Banks Aren’t Taking Bold Climate Action — And What it Will Take to Move Forward
Africa is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. Yet though climate finance has emerged as a growing solution, African banks have yet to truly ramp up their climate lending. As Carla Legros and Anthony Mbithi argue, one reason for this lack of urgency is that the financial case for this lending has rarely been framed in ways that resonate with how banks operate — namely, as a clear money-making opportunity in the near to medium term. They share a framework for understanding financial institutions' level of engagement in climate finance, providing funders and policymakers with a tool they can use to match their interventions to banks’ institutional reality. Compounding this, Commercial lenders have been the focus of extensive appeals and warnings, from across the development sector and in broader media coverage, about the moral or planetary imperative of boosting climate finance — but these attempts at persuasion have not yet proven to be an effective driver of institutional behavior. Without a clear story about where the profit will come from and how soon, climate remains a peripheral concern rather than a portfolio opportunity for these institutions.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance, Investing
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Trident Raises $2.6 Million to Support Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Digital ID Rollout
DRC Pass aims to enhance financial inclusion and improve public service delivery.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Moving Past the ‘Infrastructure of Hope’: Why Investors, Policymakers and Entrepreneurs Must Build a Modern E-Commerce Ecosystem in Southeast Asia
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for over 95% of all businesses in Southeast Asia, and millions of these entrepreneurs have migrated their hustle online. Yet according to Macy Castillo at Enstack, due to a lack of access to reliable payment options and other tools, they are attempting to build modern e-commerce businesses on a foundation of informal agreements and personal trust: an “infrastructure of hope” that leaves them exposed to payment fraud and locked out of formal finance. She argues that this is the central challenge for economic inclusion in Southeast Asia today, and explores Enstack's solution.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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IFC Seeks $300 Million to Fund Electricity Mini-Grids in Africa
The International Finance Corp. is setting up an entity aimed at lowering the cost of mini grids in Africa, to accelerate plans to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
- Categories
- Energy, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bangladesh Bank to Launch Instant Payment Platform with Gates Foundation Support
If successful, the initiative could be a turning point for Bangladesh’s financial sector - reducing costs, improving transparency, etc.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Afreximbank and Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) Forge Strategic Partnership to Unlock US $1 Billion in Investments
In addition to financing, the JPPF also incorporates a robust capacity-building programme aimed at enhancing the project preparation skills of ShafDB staff, etc.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A New Green Revolution in Indian Agriculture: How Satellite Remote Sensing is Quietly Transforming the Sector
Satellite remote sensing involves the use of satellite-based sensors to capture data about the earth’s surface. According to Sat Kumar Tomer at Satyukt Analytics, this technology is increasingly being used by Indian farmers and the businesses and organizations that serve them, generating data on vegetation health, soil moisture, irrigation patterns and other key drivers of agricultural productivity. He explores how satellite remote sensing is enabling a data-driven revolution in Indian agriculture, and how the sector can overcome barriers to wider adoption.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance, Technology
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Africa50, AfDB, and AfCFTA to Bridge Infrastructure Gaps and Drive Digital Transformation
The new partnership between the three institutions aims to dramatically increase this figure by addressing the infrastructure gaps that currently constrain trade flows across African borders.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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