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

A bank in every pocket?

Banking on mobile phones holds promise, provided regulators are willing to be flexible The idea that mobile phones bring economic benefits is now widely accepted. In places with bad roads, few trains and parlous land lines, they substitute for travel, allow price data to be distributed more quickly and easily, enable traders to reach wider markets and generally ease the business of doing business. Leonard Waverman of the London B...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Microfinance lenders are getting the message

Running a small bank that is big on microfinance can be tedious work. Take it from Omar Andaya, whose family owns Greenbank, a rural bank based in Butuan city in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Each week, Mr Andaya has to send out credit officers to collect loan payments of 500-1,000 pesos ($11.5-$23) from 32,000 micro-borrowers. But thanks to mobile phone banking, at least a thousand or so of Mr Andaya?s borrowers have began to simply ?text? the money to the ba...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

JPMorgan enters micro-finance field

JPMorgan has launched a micro-finance unit as part of its emerging markets strategy, becoming the latest investment bank to enter the fast-growing sector. Rapid expansion of the industry and the impressive profitability of many micro-finance organisations have stimulated investor interest in a sector that was largely the preserve of non-profit bodies or governments until a few years ago. ?This is a global initiative, and part and parcel of the investment bank?s growing reach in eme...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Microentrepreneurship Award help financing dreams

Giving a man fish will feed him today, yet teaching him how to fish will provide food for a lifetime. The old Chinese axiom characterizes the philosophy of the Microentrepreneurship Award in China sponsored by Citigroup Foundation and hosted by the China Bank...

Source

Business Daily Update, Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge (link opens in a new window)

U.S. plans $250 mln for African investment funds

The United States pledged on Monday to provide up to $250 million to jump-start three new African investment funds aimed at developing the continent’s capital markets so African businesses can more easily raise money. The announcement came on the final day of a five-day African visit by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson , who said Africa needs all the investment it can get from anywhere in the wor...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Doing business in a world divided. Where to from here?

Last week, a group of political consultants from all over the world gathered in Bali to discuss, promote and celebrate democracy. The 3-day annual conference was opened by the President, with substantive speeches reaffirming Indonesia’s commitment to the democratic way of life. The views of the leaders from the world’s single-largest Moslem population had significant impact on the attending delega...

Source

The Jakarta Post, Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge (link opens in a new window)

Food for thought for financiers

When executive education students go on field trips to India, they usually head to big corporate headquarters in cities such as Bangalore, where they can see the country?s high-tech industry at work. They do not often find themselves walking the streets of Mumbai, following a group of delivery men dressed in white cotton kurtas and Gandhi caps and carrying tins of curry, rice and chapattis. But this is what a group of financiers found themselves doing as part of an executive educat...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Unilever looks to clean up in Africa

The residents of Muko stand transfixed yet suspicious, arms crossed and frowning, as the strangers who arrived that morning dance on a stage they have erected from the back of a truck. With the aid of a sound system - rare enough in south-west Uganda to draw a crowd of 150 - three easygoing young visitors pump out music and try to strike up casual conversations with the villagers. How many people ate breakfast this morning? one asks the audience, composed of women in kaleidos...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa