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Indonesia on Track to Greater Financial Inclusion
Millions of unbanked Indonesians are going to enjoy easier access to the savings, loan and insurance services on the back of the government's renewed political will to tackle financial exclusion, an executive at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's seeks to grant access to financial services to 75 percent of Indonesian adults by 2019, up from 36 percent in 2014.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Follow the Money: The IT Hurdles of Microlending
When the crowdfunding non-profit Kiva.org launched a pilot in 2014 to streamline their transactions in Kenya, they met local shop owners like Esther, who was running a stall called “Facebook Cereals.” Kenya had suffered political unrest in recent years, and Esther had to restart her business in the Toi Market of Nairobi twice. But she kept her smile.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Microinsurance penetration set to increase in Tanzania
In March Jamii, a local start-up offering micro-health insurance services, announced ambitious plans to expand into East and Central Africa this year.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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‘Superglue’ Helps In Rapid Creation Of Robust & Novel Vaccines
SpyBiotech will utilize biochemical "superglue" to aid the rapid development of robust and novel vaccines. The company derived their name from "Streptococcus pyogenes" (Spy), the causative agent of a number of infections.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
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Feature phones made a comeback in Africa as smartphone growth slowed last year
After a decade of strong growth, the expected crossover of smartphones finally overtaking feature phone usage in Africa did not happen last year. In fact, feature phones had a bit of a surge. Smartphone shipments to the continent grew by only 3.4% year on year—a sharp slump compared to double-digit growth rates recorded in recent years according to data from IDC, a technology research firm.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Your Guide To Impact Investing
For more than four years, I’ve been covering impact investing as a regular Forbes contributor and have written hundreds of pieces about the space. Here’s the thing: most impact investments are only open to wealthy people. This is a guide to impact investing for everyone else, the 98 percent of the population who don’t meet the criteria for investing with the wealthy.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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DRC: Running against time
Brazilian administrator Fabio Biolchini has just returned from a year with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)'s emergency team in Democratic Republic of Congo, responding to epidemics and other crises across the breadth of this vast country.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Survey: Lack of Financial Literacy Costs Americans over $9,700 across their Lifetimes
The National Financial Educators Council recently released results of a survey about financial knowledge conducted with 3,006 people in six age categories across the US. People were asked, "Across your entire lifetime, about how much money do you think you have lost because you lacked knowledge about personal finances?"
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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