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Africa’s Great Digital Divide: You’re More Likely to Have Access to the Internet as a Wealthy Man in a Coastal Country
Tech start-ups coming out of Africa have blossomed in the past few years, putting the continent on the digital innovation map. Two examples are Kenya’s mobile money transfer service M-Pesa which is now being offered by Vodafone in Asian markets and Ushahidi - a crowdsourcing platform that has monitored everything from disasters to elections and used the world over.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kenya: Banks’ Mobile Cash Plan Fails to Take Off Yet Again
Two missed deadlines and uncertainty on when local banks will roll out their interbank switch allowing direct money transfer through mobile phones across the industry now dampen the prospects of the entire plan.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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One Acre Fund Expands Smallholder Farmer Services to Malawi and Uganda
One Acre Fund (http://www.OneAcreFund.org), a nonprofit agriculture organization that supplies smallholder farmers with the financing and training they need to increase their incomes and food security, today announced the official opening of its Malawi and Uganda operations. Malawi and Uganda began as pilots in 2013 and 2014 respectively. One Acre Fund now serves 400,000 smallholder farmers—with an estimated two million people in those households—across East and Southern Africa.
- Source
- Press Release
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India Emerging as Fastest-Growing Market for Fintech Software Products
Powered by innovation in payment processing, the fintech software products segment is expanding at a rapid pace in India, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), which represents country's IT industry.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech, remittances
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India’s MobiKwik Raises $50M for Its Mobile Wallet Service
The increase of smartphone ownership in India is fueling the rise of mobile wallets in the country. One company leading the charge, MobiKwik, has topped up its own funds with a $50 million Series C round announced today.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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NEPC Survey: Endowments and Foundations Don’t Expect to Sacrifice Performance with Impact Investments
NEPC, LLC (www.nepc.com), one of the industry’s largest independent, institutional investment consulting firms, today published the results of its Q1 2016 NEPC Endowment and Foundation Poll. These results show that 86% of asset owners that currently use impact investing expect these allocations to equal or outperform the overall market.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Asia Funds Say Socially Responsible Investment Faces Major Hurdles
Appetite for socially responsible investments in Asia is growing but fund managers say there are still major obstacles that prevent more significant investment in such assets.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Airtel to Launch Payments Bank in India in Q2 FY17
Bharti Airtel's mobile commerce subsidiary, Airtel M Commerce Services, has been renamed Airtel Payments Bank. The company plans to launch its payments bank operations in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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