-
ADB Expends Leasing Company Loan to Boost China’s Health System
Despite a reform programme and efforts to scale up healthcare funding in China, the ADB said shortfalls remain in access to finance in some underdeveloped regions. Lease finance, whereby a leasing company buys an asset on behalf of the user and rents it to them for an agreed period, offers an attractive option for hospitals needing high-value equipment, it said.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
-
Inside Facebook’s Ambitious Plan to Connect the Whole World
The stern woman behind the press desk at the United Nations is certain I’ve made a mistake about the person I’m here to see. “Mr. Mark Zuckerberg?” she says. “Who’s he?” He’s an Internet executive, I tell her. He started Facebook. It’s the second week of the United Nations’ General Assembly. Several hundred reporters crowd into the press holding area. Nearby, on the main plaza, heads of state stroll by. In this place, it seems, Mark Zuckerberg might as well be Mark Smith. She checks her dog-eared schedule, then makes a call, enunciating into the receiver: “ZOO-ker-burg. Mark ZOO-ker-burg.” Silence. “Yes, the Facebook guy.” More silence, during which it occurs to me the UN is like the opposite of Facebook. If it had motivational posters on the wall, they’d read: Move slow and break nothing. Finally, she hangs up and turns back to me. Zuckerberg is on the program after all, she concedes, speaking just before German chancellor Angela Merkel.
- Categories
- Technology
-
Mobile Money Fraud Hits Rural Kenya Residents Hard
Mobile money has made lives easier for most people in Africa, but this has not come cheap for the users with con tricksters forever devising means and ways of stealing the money. In Kenya, for example, con men are applying tricks that are more advanced than service providers and users.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Dozens of Drug Makers Agree on Effort to Combat Antibiotic Resistance
In an unprecedented bid to address antibiotic resistance, more than 80 drug and device makers have issued adeclaration urging governments to “support investment” in developing medicines and diagnostic tools to combat drug-resistant infections.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Acumen Acquire SolarAid’s Off Grid Energy Research and Impact Division
Acumen, the global social impact organization, announced today its acquisition of the award-winning Research and Impact division of SolarAid, the international nonprofit and leading impact practitioner in the solar energy sector. In acquiring SolarAid’s research arm, Acumen builds on its decade of investing in off-grid energy, further deepening its understanding of the energy needs of low-income populations while measuring the social impact of newly electrified individuals and households. Acumen began investing in off-grid energy solutions in 2007 and today has the largest portfolio of companies committed to serving the poor.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Will Technical Illiteracy Mar Rwanda’s Ambitious Financial Inclusion Target?
As part of its goal to have 100 percent of adults formally financially included and to build a robust payments system that facilitates a cashless economy by 2020, Rwanda is targeting 80 percent financial inclusion by 2017 through the aid of the Financial Sector Development Programme II.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Motsoaledi Accused of Trying to Control Private Health Prices
The Competition Commission’s private healthcare market inquiry is a “ruse” set in place by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi as a “justification to control prices” in the sector to facilitate the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, the director of the Free Market Foundation, Jasson Urbach, said on Tuesday.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Will India Go Cashless If Mobile Payments Take Off?
As soon as Binod Upadhyay arrives at a destination he immediately turns round to check if the customer is pulling out a wallet or a mobile phone.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.