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How India’s Farmers Are Using Technology to Feed More Than a Billion People
Piggybacking on India's mobile boom, these companies are using smartphones and the internet to help farmers grow, harvest and sell their crops more efficiently.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- agtech
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Is Rwanda in Line to Become One of Africa’s Major Tech Hubs?
Recent years have seen countries across the African continent investing deep into the tech industry. Rwanda is angling to get ahead of the pack.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From Early Adopters to Tech Laggards: Understanding Off-Grid Energy Customers
The team at 60 Decibels recently set out to understand the motivations of customers served by off-grid energy firms in Africa. Researchers quizzed customers in Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia about their attitudes and behaviours toward new products to find out who were the early innovators, early adopters or tech laggards. Kat Harrison and Hassan Nasser of 60 Decibels explain the research and how firms can convert ambivalent customers into product ambassadors.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment, Technology
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Financial Inclusion Week: Reflection and Action from Three Leading Voices
Today, the Center for Financial Inclusion is wrapping up Financial Inclusion Week. The intention for the week was to ask some soul-searching questions about what it means to be inclusive – and about how financial access in the age of fintech can impact the lives of millions, for good or ill. We caught up with three leading voices in the field, asking each of them three key questions focused on what financial inclusion means to them from a personal, organizational and international standpoint.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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RSF-Purpose Initiative Responds to Demand for Mission-First Business Models
A grassroots global movement is emerging behind mission-first business models rooted in stakeholder governance—rather than shareholder control—and RSF Social Finance and the Purpose Foundation are collaborating to help that movement grow. Today they released a report that serves as a handbook for companies exploring alternative business structures and financing.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance, Investing, Technology
- Tags
- business development, ESG, research, scale
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A New How-To Guide Chronicles Food and Water Innovators
It's challenging enough to start a business in mature markets, but just try running one in a rural community in a developing country with poor roads and customers who can't pay you. “Innovator Guidebook: Navigating Business Models for the Base of the Pyramid in Water and Energy for Food," highlights lessons from innovators funded by the five-year Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge. The online resource was unveiled today at SOCAP.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Energy, Technology
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Kenyan telco Safaricom’s Alpha incubator faces uncertain future
Safaricom’s Nairobi-based Alpha innovation incubator may have an uncertain future, according to sources - TechCrunch reports.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- incubators
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Amazon Pay Users in India Can Now Pay Their Utility, Mobile and Cable Bills With Alexa
To be sure, Amazon has long allowed users in many markets to purchase items using voice command with Alexa. But this is the first time the American company is letting users pay their electricity, water, cooking gas, broadband and satellite TV bills with voice and Amazon Pay.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- e-commerce
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