NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Fund houses target the bottom of the pyramid

Savita Devi, a daily wage earner in Gujarat, is saving for her future through a mutual fund. And she has company. Around 150,000 small investors are putting Rs 50-200 per month in UTI Asset Management Company’s (AMC’s) Micro Pension Plan. UTI AMC is not the only fund house targeting the bottom-of-the-pyramid investors to extend its presence. SBI Mutual Fund, an affiliate of State Bank of India (SBI), also launched a ‘Chota Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)’ in Apr...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Grameen Foundation and Google create mobile apps for Africa

Posted by Kristi Heim Real time information about farming, health and trading will be available to mobile phone users in Uganda with new technology services developed by the Grameen Foundation, Google and telecom operator MTN Uganda. The Grameen Foundation saw the proliferation of mobile phones in Africa as a way to get ...

Source

The Seattle Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

India needs a brilliant wave of entrepreneurs

MUMBAI NEW DELHI: Zeus, for once, was thwarted as the driving rain and rolling thunder failed to dampen the cheery mood at the concluding chapter of The Power of Ideas programme in Mumbai. The Times of India building was the venue for the interaction between shortlisted candidates and investors from the Indian Angel Network (IAN), VCs and incubators. There was a flurry of activity as entrepreneurs and ...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

The missing middle to drive sustainable growth

Just imagine how different the world would be if, back in Microsoft’s earliest days, Bill Gates had been unable to find anyone to invest in him or if a decade ago the same had happened to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as they tried to get the business going from the garage of a suburban home in California. Entrepreneurs the world over who try to start up and grow businesses face the problem of lack of access to finance. Often, they also experience an equ...

Source

This is Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Bolivian Microfinance

Bolivia has been the success story in microfinance in Latin America in the last twenty years. I decided to spend one week in La Paz to better understand the business model of the Bolivian microfinance institutions. During the six day stay in La Paz I had the privilege of meeting the Executive Director of Bolivia’s Financial Services Supervisory Authority (ASFI) Ernesto Rivero, the former President of Bancosol and Prodem Fernando Romero Moreno, the President of the Bolivian Academy of Ec...

Source

RGE Monitor (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Safe, comfy and chatting away – women?s empowerment at PCO booths

New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Anjali Kher, 33, a small-time designer from Srinagar, keeps in touch with her family in the Kashmir Valley from the public telephone booth next to her home in Delhi. “The booth remains open till midnight and I drop in almost every day after work to call my father and my brothers,” Kher, who lives in Mayur Vihar, told IANS. The public telephone - including the PCO (public call office) phone booths with STD facilities - in India has become a too...

Source

Thaindian News (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Expat Bangladeshis spend more calling home than others: survey

Dhaka, 28 June (bdnews24.com)—Expatriate Bangladeshis called home more frequently than their Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan and Filipino counterparts, spending $48 a month to stay in touch, a survey says. The survey ’"Teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid", conducted by LIRNEasia, a regional ICT policy research institute, found 87 percent of Bangladeshi migrants called home at least once a week, while 34 percent called home daily. Dr Rohan Samarejiva, chairma...

Source

bdnews24.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Bottom-of-pyramid poised to leapfrog with mobile wallet

Empowerment of the bottom-of-the-pyramid never looked so feasible. A revolution is silently but forcefully sweeping the developing countries, that could soon equip every single person with a mobile wallet and provide them with not just digital payment facilities but huge savings as well. The trend in mobile wallet usage has shown such vigour in countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan, not to mention Asian leaders in that domain, Japan and South Korea, t...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)