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Feature phones made a comeback in Africa as smartphone growth slowed last year
After a decade of strong growth, the expected crossover of smartphones finally overtaking feature phone usage in Africa did not happen last year. In fact, feature phones had a bit of a surge. Smartphone shipments to the continent grew by only 3.4% year on year—a sharp slump compared to double-digit growth rates recorded in recent years according to data from IDC, a technology research firm.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kenyan mobile government bond sales cross 50% uptake
The Kenyan government's mobile phone-based bond, M-Akiba, has crossed the 50 percent subscription rate, raising optimism that it will hit the target ahead of time, reports Business Daily. By 14:30 hrs on 29 March, at least 61,000 people had registered on the platform, and bought KES 75.2 million worth of the bond through M-Pesa and Airtel Money.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Quest for new antibiotics gets first major funding from global partnership
A major global partnership aimed at fighting superbugs announced Thursday that it is investing up to $48 million in research projects, including potentially the first new classes of antibiotics in decades, to target the deadliest drug-resistant bacteria.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- research
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Vodacom launches mobile solutions for expecting mums
Vodacom through one of their platforms, Siyakha which means ‘we are building’ in isiZulu, has launched a mobile solution called Mum and Baby that offers maternal support to expectant mothers.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Environment Month Takeaway: It’s Time to Bust Some Business Models
The business, technological, financial and political (notwithstanding the U.S. government) tailwinds have never been moving in such alignment toward a cleaner and more sustainable world economy. But as NextBillion editor Scott Anderson points out, it will take truth tellers and, yes, some persistent agitators to make sure this ship stays on course.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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Why Fossil Fuel Companies Must Evolve or Die: An Interview with Carbon Tracker Founder Mark Campanale
To keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius and (hopefully) avoid the harshest consequences of climate change, up to three-quarters of known fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground. That's the thesis of the Carbon Tracker Initiative and its founder, Mark Campanale. If that sounds like a heavy lift for an oil-dependent world, he raises a compelling point: With collapsing margins and emerging competition from renewables, the fossil fuel industry has no choice but to evolve. Campanale elaborates on these views in this video interview.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Why most healthcare start-ups are bleeding
Not many digital healthcare start-up has achieved break-even mainly because of the absence of ‘assisted e-commerce’ in an industry driven mostly by doctors, pharmaceutical companies and their associations.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Kenyan diaspora is the biggest sender of mobile money
To mark the 10th anniversary of mobile money service M-PESA, WorldRemit has released new data showing that the Kenyan diaspora is the biggest sender of digital remittances to mobile accounts. Transfers to mobile money accounts make up 93% of WorldRemit transactions to Kenya now – showing that Kenyans continue to be early adopters of innovative technology, even when abroad.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments
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