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Huge remittances milestone for Africa as TerraPay gets South Africa license
A mobile payments and remittances startup called TerraPay may have achieved what could turn out to be a huge industry milestone in the remittances space in Africa. The startup announced today that it has secured a license from the Reserve Bank of South Africa to conduct low-value international money transfers in the country.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Vodafone launches financial inclusion project for women
The project would see groups of women under the Village Savings and Loans Scheme and Rural Project Support Network, introduced to financial inclusion opportunities including the use of Vodafone cash.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Smart containers ready to disrupt the seafood industry
The seafood industry must comply with increasingly strict demands from consumers on sustainable seafood production. For that reason, a group of graduates have spent their summer at DNV GL developing smart “robot containers” with cooling systems that can sail to ports without any human interaction.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- product design, SDGs
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Gates Foundation and PATH wire up health data in Africa using a novel approach
The partnership is digitizing and connecting Tanzania’s healthcare system, linking a fragmented array of databases and information sources. A unified system could dramatically improve efficiency, accountability and cost savings for a country of 45 million people that struggles with infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How mindful investing can guarantee a better education
By changing the way their pension and endowment funds are invested, universities could pass on the financial benefits to students, while contributing to positive outcomes for society. Africa, which could reap significant rewards from such an approach, is lagging behind many other
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Peer to Peer Lender Amartha Partners with Largest State Owned Micro-credit Company in Indonesia
Peer to peer lender Amartha has formed a partnership with the largest state-owned micro credit guarantee company in Indonesia, Perum Jamkrindo. This follows a similar partnership with Bank Mandiri. Amartha is an online lender designed to connect Micro Businesses and SMEs that seek affordable working capital with investors who want to fund their business based on credit risk and expected return. This is a significant agreement for Amartha. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and support of small business is vital to the economy.
Jamkrindo is a state-owned enterprise that has been given a special mandate by the Government to guarantee credit and financing, as well as financial transactions particularly in the SME and micro segments. Jamkrindo is the largest credit guarantee company in Indonesia with total guarantee value of more than Rp 270 Trillion and 8 Million credit.- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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The End of Typing: The Next Billion Mobile Users Will Rely on Video and Voice
The internet’s global expansion is entering a new phase, and it looks decidedly unlike the last one. Instead of typing searches and emails, a wave of newcomers—“the next billion,” the tech industry calls them—is avoiding text, using voice activation and communicating with images. They are a swath of the world’s less-educated, online for the first time thanks to low-end smartphones, cheap data plans and intuitive apps that let them navigate despite poor literacy.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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India ranks behind five African countries in Financial and Digital Inclusion says Brookings study
While at first glance it may sound disappointing that India lags behind five African countries in Financial and Digital inclusion, a closer look at the data reveals great news for Indian companies which are in the financial services and the digital space.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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