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TPG ventures into African market with purchase of $47.5m stake in telco Cellulant
Private equity group TPG has announced its first venture into the African market as its Rise Fund acquired a stake in telco firm Cellulant. TPG will buy a $47.5m stake in the digital payments provider, which reaches around 40 million people over 11 African countries.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ghana unveils mobile money interoperability platform
Mobile money interoperability went live in Ghana following a number of delays, a step hailed by the country’s Vice President for propelling the country into one of the global leaders for the technology.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Big Tech is an extractive industry, it must be regulated as such
Web activists have long bemoaned the dangers to privacy posed by these firms. But now the squeaky clean liberal image of Big Tech has been shattered by the scandal around Cambridge Analytica's use of personal Facebook data to help win the Brexit and Trump votes.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- data
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China’s Major Tech Firms Will Dominate SE Asia’s Emerging Markets: Who Wins And Who Loses?
Digital behemoths Alibaba and Tencent are expanding their e-commerce, cloud and data capabilities across the SEA region, which has a rapidly growing population of more than half a billion people.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- e-commerce, fintech, MSMEs, public policy
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Viewpoint: Can blockchain be the foundation of sustainable social impact?
Blockchain can impact the way that we identify things and the way that we interact and with the digital world. It has the potential to create a more transparent and fair society.
- Categories
- Technology
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Inside the Jordan refugee camp that runs on blockchain
By letting a machine scan his iris, he confirmed his identity on a traditional United Nations database, queried a family account kept on a variant of the Ethereum blockchain by the World Food Programme (WFP), and settled his bill without opening his wallet.
- Categories
- Technology
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For Solar Irrigation to Grow, the Pump Needs to be Innovative – So Does the Warranty
Helen Davies at Futurepump writes that the startup has developed a cost-effective, solar-based pump to irrigate crops that is simple to use and maintain, and designed specifically with small rural farms in mind. The firm has already sold 4,000 units and is distributing in 11 African and Asian countries. But beyond the technology, an equally important innovation is the company's five-year warranty on the product, which Davies says is an industry first. She makes the case that solar device makers operating in low-income markets need to stand behind their products with warrantees and service, if customers are going to trust the technology and the manufacturers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Technology
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Maximizing Technology’s Social Impact: 10th ICT4D Conference Coming May 8-10
The 10th ICT4D Conference is the largest event of its kind in the global development sector. This year's event, happening May 8-10 in Lusaka, Zambia, aims to map out the path for technology to make the maximum impact on improving humanitarian relief and development work, bringing together over 600 ICT experts, program managers and senior executives from 80 countries. NextBillion is a media partner of the event, and our readers can get a discount on registration.
- Categories
- Technology