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Rwanda: Tigo Unveils New Package for Social Entrepreneurs
Tigo and "Reach for Change", an international NGO, have launched a new campaign with an aim of supporting social entrepreneurs to enhance the lives of Rwandan youth.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Insights from G2012 Mexico Financial Inclusion Twitter Conference
Great insights and knowledge surfaced about how to provide valuable, affordable, secure, and comprehensive financial services to underserved and excluded communities during a six-hour long multilingual #SocEntChat on Twitter last month. It was part of the G2012 Mexico Financial Inclusion global competition that is seeking the world’s most innovative solutions for financial inclusion, organized by Ashoka Changemakers and G2012 Mexico. Don’t worry if you missed it, here’s a recap.
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Going Beyond Remittances: Why SMEs Should be a Key Market Segment for Mobile Money Operators
Many expect that SMEs could benefit substantially from mobile money as a tool to manage payments and working capital, given that it offers an electronic cash substitute for sending payments and storing working capital along with rudimentary record keeping. However, while mobile money use by SMEs is widespread, it is not yet deep.
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It is important to make money in business, but not at the cost of ethics and values: Sam Pitroda
Sam Pitroda, who led the telecom revolution in India, says the second phase will see a slew of opportunities for startups in areas such as broadband, mobile applications and local content. Pitroda, an advisor to the Prime Minister on public information infrastructure and innovation, is helping the government launch a $1-billion fund to invest in bottom-of-the-pyramid innovations. In conversation with ET he retraces a journey that has seen him survive cancer and bypass surgeries. Excerpts:
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- South Asia
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Ditch The Hero Complex, And 3 Other Tips For Female Social Entrepreneurs
Ten years ago, social entrepreneurship was a pretty lonely field. There weren’t degree programs or associations; impact investing and microfinance were barely even recognized terms. Even organizations like Ashoka – which has a 25-year history of investing in entrepreneurs with high potential for solving social problems – would have struggled to promote their “Everyone a Changemaker” vision.
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SIFP and Fledge Form Partnership
Social Innovation Fast Pitch (“SIFP”) has partnered with Fledge, the “conscious company” incubator, to provide additional advice, mentorship, and support to the for-profit finalists of the SIFP 2012 program. Additionally, the SIFP 2012 Fund II investors have selected Fledge to manage the operations of this year’s $100,000 investment fund.
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NexThought Monday: Designing New Financial Products for ‘Bolsa Familia’ Beneficiaries: CGAP’s research explores how conditional cash transfer recipients manage money
We at CGAP have been involved in efforts in Brazil to improve our understanding of Bolsa Família recipients. Our goal is to counteract the prevailing wisdom held by banks in Brazil that welfare recipients are a singular block of very poor people to whom it is difficult to provide financial services.
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- Uncategorized
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India’s microfinance industry gets some relief
It’s a period in history that India’s microfinance industry would probably rather forget: In late 2010, more than 200 poor residents of the Andhra Pradesh state committed suicide allegedly due to excessive pressure from microcreditors for debt repayments. Backlash against microfinance institutions not just in the state but the whole of India followed.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- microfinance
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