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Vodacom’s eastern pivot
The company sees dynamic, fast-growing East Africa as a lynchpin of its growth strategy. In August, Vodacom Group wrapped up its R34.6bn ($2.6bn) acquisition of a 35% stake in Safaricom, the leading communications firm and mobile operator in Kenya, from parent company Vodafone.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Unlocking an Energy Revolution in Ethiopia With Lessons From the Black Market
A rapidly growing market for solar lanterns and home kits is driving an energy revolution in Ethiopia. Like many low-income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Ethiopia is a point of focus for international development and finance institutions as well as donors. Such organizations are channelizing tens of millions of dollars into Ethiopia for energy access. In order to maximize the impact of their investments, they need to have an understanding of local requirements in order to provide tailored financial flows.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- off-grid energy
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Gates Foundation, Abu Dhabi Pair to Fight Forgotten Diseases
The $100 million fund will seek to eliminate river blindness, or onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis, which leads to a condition known as elephantiasis, from countries where they circulate in Africa and the Middle East. The Crown Prince will donate $20 million and the Gates Foundation 20% of the total amount raised to the new "Reaching the Last Mile Fund," with a plan to raise the remaining $60 million from others in the region and beyond.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
- Tags
- philanthropy
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Impact Investing Can Be Profitable, New Report Says
Throughout the industry’s development, however, some investors have questioned the ability of impact investments to generate financial returns similar to traditional investments, and lack of data has left this question unanswerable.
Now a new report from the Global Impact Investing Network looks to recent research that it says has shed valuable light on what are appropriate and achievable financial performance expectations.- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Study says keeping 1 billion people in the dark costs poor countries dearly
Research from the Overseas Development Institute shows improving access to off-grid electricity, such as solar-home systems and clean energy mini-grids, can boost development.
- Categories
- Energy
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Press release: China consolidates position as global leader on green finance, says new research
The report finds that China – which put green finance on the G20 agenda during its 2016 presidency – is following through on its political commitment to boost the financing required to do this. The report looks particularly at progress since the State Council in August 2016 approved a set of recommendations for action on greening China’s financial system.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Viewpoint: Impact funds not scaling fast enough in India
There isn’t any doubt that impact investors such as Aavishkaar have made tremendous progress over the past decade since venture capital as an asset class returned in earnest to this market. Over the last seven years, 2010-2016, impact investors have put $5.2 billion to work across 485 deals, according to a McKinsey & Co. report in September. It wasn’t until 2010 that impact investments in India started to gather momentum and the last two years have been quite exceptional. Investments touched the billion-dollar mark for the first time in 2015 and scaled to nearly $1.1 billion last year.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Trocafone raises $15 million to expand its used electronics marketplace in emerging markets
Latin America is the fourth largest smartphone market in the world, the company said, despite the fact that roughly 418 million people can’t afford to buy one, according to data from the company.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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