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Viewpoint: Africa’s Regulators Are Smothering Its Innovators
The birth of mobile money transfer in Kenya has raised optimism about the potential of the continent to leapfrog in other technologies. However, Africa’s mobile technology is starting to look like an exception despite efforts to create start-ups using emerging technologies and platforms such as drones, 3D printing, robots and machine learning.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- innovation
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Drinking Water ATM Takes Mobile Payments in Kenya
Global pump company Grundfos and telecommunications firm Ericsson have joined forces to deliver a ATM water dispenser that takes mobile payments.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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OPIC and Microsoft Commit to Support Wireless Internet Expansion in Kenya
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government’s development finance institution, today announced commitment and first disbursement to Mawingu Networks, a provider of solar-powered wireless Internet across rural Kenya. OPIC committed to financing a $4.1 million loan. Mawingu Networks was able to establish their current operating model using an initial grant in 2013 from Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). They received equity funding from Angel Investor Jim Forster, Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc., and Microsoft Corporation two years after their first phase of support.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Growing Influence of Telecom Companies in Off-Grid Markets
The growing use of mobile money solutions for electricity tariff payment is redefining the solar off-grid market in regions such as Africa. Here, mobile money services have seen a tremendous growth over the last decade.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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McKinsey says digital finance adoption could add trillions to high growth economies
Adoption of digital finance could add $3.7 trillion dollars to the GDP of emerging markets economies, including $1.1 trillion in China alone, according to a new McKinsey & Company report.
- Categories
- Technology
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Rice Engineer Secures Prestigious $625,000 ‘Genius Grant’
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a bioengineering professor at Rice University, was named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Thinking Outside the Bag: Bringing Together Private Packaging Firms, Public Procurement to Feed More Hungry People
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) conservatively estimates that 1 percent of all food aid shipped every year is lost to factors like spoilage or physical damage. That’s enough to feed about 200,000 families for a month — $15 million lost each year. This summer, USAID, USDA and American packaging companies are running an experiment with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to understand which kinds of food aid packaging may better prevent spoilage.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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GSMA Publishes Report Detailing the Mobile Industry’s Impact in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
At today’s United Nations Private Sector Forum, the GSMA unveiled the ‘2016 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals’, a ground-breaking study that provides a current assessment of the mobile industry’s impact in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and outlines future actions that will expand and strengthen that impact. The GSMA also announced several industry commitments, including actions to elevate the focus on humanitarian assistance, as well as a partnership with the UN to drive ongoing engagement around the SDGs across the mobile industry and adjacent sectors.
- Categories
- Technology
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