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Diagnosis App Scoops Africa Health Prize
An app that allows rural doctors to seek advice remotely from experts won Africa's first prize recognising new technology that boosts health on the continent.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Opportunity International’s Evolving Microfinance Strategy: A Podcast Q&A with CEO Vicki Escarra
Opportunity International, a pioneer in the microfinance space, operates 39 microfinance institutions in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central and East Asia and Latin America. But recently, the organization has been undergoing a strategic shift, announcing the sale of several MFIs in sub-Saharan Africa. We spoke with Opportunity's CEO, Vicki Escarra, about these moves – and many other topics – in this Q&A, NextBillion's second podcast.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- microfinance, philanthropy
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Ericsson to develop ‘Emergency Wallet’ for humanitarian aid
Ericsson has committed to developing Ericsson Emergency Wallet, a mobile financial services solution, for deployment in the immediate aftermath of disaster or crises to support humanitarian organizations and affected populations.
- Categories
- Technology
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Report: Off-Grid Electricity, Mobile Money Could Help Plug Africa’s Rural Power Crunch
A combination of renewable energy sources off the national grids could be a solution to supplying electricity to rural areas across Africa, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed on Monday.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Upending Conventional Wisdom with Bottom-Up Innovation
To accelerate the democratization of affordable and robust internet access, Microsoft this week announced 12 new partnerships with social enterprises. Paul Garnett, Director of Affordable Access Initiatives at Microsoft, writes that the partnerships will support market-based innovation through seed grants, a network of peers, mentors and resources, and commercial partnerships, in addition to engaging the communities in which they work.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Viewpoint: Unified Payment Interface Will Be the Next Big Thing in Mobile Banking in India
Mobile payments just got a leg-up, thanks to the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), probably the only app of its kind in the world. Virtual wallet services have been around for a while now. UPI goes a step further and allows you to make payments by simply entering the payee's virtual ID on your smartphone and feeding the PIN the app requests. The money is debited directly from your account and transferred to the payee in a matter of minutes, without you having to provide either your bank details or the payee's bank IFSC code. In a few simple steps you can make transactions worth up to a lakh. The app on your phone need not be of the bank you hold your account in, but of any bank whose user experience you prefer. The same goes for the payee. But the transactions still take place between the underlying banks, without you even knowing about it. No need to worry about your credit card details being compromised.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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NexThought Monday: Fending Off ‘Pilotitis’ in Global Tech
In 2008, as many as 80 NGOs were testing consumer-facing mobile health (mHealth) programs in Uganda - all at once. But none of the pilots were scalable, interoperable, or meaningfully coordinated. Uganda is far from alone. A World Bank study in 2013 found nearly 500 disparate mHealth programs being implemented around the world – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia – without evidence of scaling or integration. A preventive treatment of sorts has arrived to help organizations address these "technology for development" problems: The Principles for Digital Development.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
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Samsung Pay Strikes Partnership With Chinese Online Payment Giant Alipay
Samsung announced today that it has cemented a deal that will make Alipay, China’s largest online payments platform, available through Samsung Pay.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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