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

Equity Bank yesterday unveiled Internet banking service in the local market after a successful trial run in London to tap the purses of over 10,000 Kenyans living in the diaspora. The service allows customers worldwide to access their accounts for purposes of conducting convenient payments such as monthly salary transfers, remittances, affordable money transfers, foreign currency issuance, among other services. Yesterday?s launch, which was presided over by Commonwealth ...

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Kenya Times (link opens in a new window)

Citigroup has joined forces with one of Africa?s leading private equity groups to invest at least $200m in the continent, the biggest bet to date on the future of African growth businesses. CDC, a private equity investor owned by the UK government and formerly known as the Commonwealth Development Corporation, will commit $100m to a dedicated Africa fund, managed by Citigroup?s private equity arm. Citigroup will match CDC dollar for dollar. The investment brings CDC?s to...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Aureos Capital, one of the most experienced private equity groups in Africa, is aiming to raise $400m for a ground-breaking bet on the potential of smaller companies to build businesses spanning the continent, writes Barney Jopson in London. The group, domiciled in Mauritius, is among a handful of emerging market specialists active in Africa and already runs three funds, dedicated to east, west and southern Africa, which total $140m. The new pan-African fund is a signifi...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

How about a PC for Rs 5,000? It may sound startling, but that is what Nova netPC from Chennai-based Novatium is all about. The company is doing a pilot of its netPC that adopts the cable television model. The netPC is a simple computer that works in a network and does not have local hard disks. All the software and applications are set up in a remote central server located at the premises of the operator (cable operator or telecom company). A c...

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The Hindu Business Line (link opens in a new window)

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 ? Here in the Swiss mountains at the World Economic Forum, the annual conclave of world leaders, concerns over a growing digital divide this year have taken a back seat to the challenge of climate change. Being out of the limelight, however, has not dimmed passions over what the best way is to deploy computers in the developing world. The controversy boiled over on Saturday at a breakfast meeting here where Craig R. Barrett, the chairman of Intel, squar...

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New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Sir, John Gapper’s column Anyone can become the CEO of You Inc (January 22) relating to the Shifting Power Equation under discussion at Davos focuses on the newly distributed power to achieve celebrity. Potentially more interesting is the newly distributed power to create change. Along these lines, the event of the week may have been the 2007 Schwab Social Entrepreneurs Summit that just concluded in Zurich. What is a social entrepreneur? Anyone who takes...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

India’s great leap forward in telecommunications is heralded as one of the country’s success stories. But big initiatives in rural expansion and evolution of government policy must gain momentum for rapid growth to continue. Getting to the very bottom of the pyramid has to be through transformative change, says Kunal Bajaj, director of BDA India, a telecoms consultancy in New Delhi. India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has a target of 50...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

A Light Bulb Goes on, and China Starts Thinking ?Alternative Energy?

Mr. Li said that within six months, he expected to have a database of some 300 Chinese start-ups seeking investment partners. One of them will be a company called Ruikang, based in Jiangsu Province, near Shanghai, that handles organic tea, honey and Chinese traditional medicines. Another start-up that he said was seeking investors is Shenwu, based in Beijing, which makes equipment to capture heat from a heating unit and redirect it for other uses. Mr. Li said the big challenge facing Ame...

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New York Times (link opens in a new window)