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Kenya’s fintech companies are innovating to bring small businesses into their fold
Mobile operators and electronic payment firms are focusing on the hundreds of thousands of small businesses in Kenya by introducing new products specifically aimed at paying for low-value card transactions with ease, speed, and convenience.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Free-riders?: U.S. research funding for diseases causes other countries to back out, new study finds
Researchers looked at funding data from Policy Cures and the World Health Organization for 15 neglected parasitic and infectious diseases—including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy and meningitis—from 2007 to 2014. The data showed that the U.S. funds over half of the world’s research for these diseases, with the next closest countries being the United Kingdom at just under five percent and France at almost three percent.
- Region
- North America
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Latin America’s Fintech Rebels Declare War on Inflation
A frustrated 49 percent of the region’s population and many small- and medium-size businesses are outright excluded from traditional financial services, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Others, who have access, don’t even bother using the system because of decades of broken promises.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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Investment where profit means better schools
The British Asian Trust is planning to raise $10m (£7.5m) for an "education development impact bond" in which investments are linked to specific targets in improving education for disadvantaged communities in India.
- Region
- South Asia
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Uber rival Go-Jek drives payments push with acquisition of three fintech start-ups
Go-Jek said the acquisition move would bolster its activity in both online and offline payments, as well as increase engagement in the financial services in Indonesia. Go-Jek's mobile payments service Go-Pay is one of the most popular payment platforms in Indonesia.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Press release: IEEE Awards $1.2 Million for Off-Grid Energy Entrepreneurs
IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization advancing technology for humanity, announced that IEEE Smart Village (ISV) has granted $1.2 million in new funds for selected sustainable energy projects with a potential life-changing impact on up to seven million people around the world.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
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Ethical Investors Tightening Screws on Emerging-Market Debt Issuers
Prices on Vale and Samarco bonds plummeted by about a third after the disaster. Vale, along with mine co-owner BHP Billiton, is facing a multi-billion dollar claim.
Events like that are increasingly spurring fund managers to look closer at environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks before investing in emerging markets, where polluting industries and accounting issues have often gone unpunished.- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- regulations
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Top 4 African tech trends to look out for
With a young population of early-adopters and an improving infrastructure from telecommunications to payments, investment in Africa in 2018 is likely to eclipse record-breaking growth, and be driven by more post-seed capital.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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