-
Mobile Phones Provide Jobs in Rural Areas
The mobile phone is enabling people at the bottom of the pyramid to widen their markets. For instance, it provides vendors timely information about crowd gatherings, a potential market. It comes in handy for the watermelon vendor during the nine months of off-season when he can find work as a repairman. Indeed, thousands of artisans are finding that the mobile connects them to their markets and even opens new markets for them. These and other benefits of mobile phone in ru...
-
LOJ Launches New Protector Policies: Targeted at Persons with Small Incomes
Life of Jamaica (LOJ) has launched a new insurance product, the ’Protector Series’, targeting a mass market of small and micro businesses as well as persons in lower-income groups. Life of Jamaica is entering a market that is currently underserved and does not recognise the need for such a service, said Karl Williams, LOJ assistant vice-president for corporate marketing. According to social labour surveys the target market is about 60 per cent of the population...
-
From Chamber’s Business Civic Leadership Center: How Business Is Promoting Global Development
As the UN General Assembly meeting draws near and with it, discussion of the status of the Millennium Development Goals, development agencies, multilateral organizations, and governments in poor countries are waking up to the fact that multinational companies may be vital for their success. Public-private partnerships have never been hotter -- multinational corporations view them as an opportunity to practice corporate citizenship and expand their markets, while their public partners in...
-
It Costs Money to be Poor
Predatory businesses such as pawnbrokers, pay-day lenders, rent-to-own stores, and used-car lots prey upon the poor and heavily indebted. There is a better way. A row of identical signs arranged like landing lights at an airport repeat the appealing offer: ?Borrow $200, Repay $203.?? This modern spider-to-fly invitation displayed in front of the office of payday lenders appeals to hard strapped workers who just need a boost till payday.? What?s three bucks?? Technically, s...
-
Poor Pay More for City Living
Food, home, services in low-income areas cost residents a $2,800 ’poverty premium’ It’s not exactly a secret that the poor pay more for everyday goods and services than their wealthier neighbors. But a local group has just put a dollar figure on that poverty premium - about $2,800 a year for low-income residents in the Baltimore metro area. In a report released yesterday, the Job Opportunities Task Force says that residents in low-income neighborhoods often spe...
-
MMA Convention to Focus on Bottom of the Pyramid
The sixth edition of MMA (Madras Management Association) All India Management Students? convention, which is scheduled to take place on September 21 and 22 will focus on ?Strategies for the bottom of the pyramid?. Chennai, Sept. 19 The sixth edition of MMA (Madras Management Association) All India Management Students? convention, which is scheduled to take place on September 21 and 22 will focus on ?Strategies for the bottom of the pyramid?. Announcing this at a conference on Wednesda...
-
Brazil’s Retail Sales Signal Rise in Spending by Poor
Brazilian families in the impoverished northern states are increasing purchases of consumer goods faster than the national average, signaling government handouts are fueling growth in the region. Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian families in the impoverished northern states are increasing purchases of consumer goods faster than the national average, signaling government handouts are fueling growth in the region. Retail sales in Maranhao, the poorest state by per capita gross domestic ...
-
A Health Check for Microfinance Banks
A small enterprise trader at the Maasai Market in Nairobi who fits the microfinance bank clientele profile. The MFBs have to consciously evaluate their strengths and plummet into a poor clientele with a wit and will to take risk while operating under commercial business principles. 20-September-2007: Recently, Business Daily ran what would easily be referred to as an excellent piece on Microfinance Banking in Kenya, and generally Africa. Notwithstanding the admiration there is for the...
The Best of NextBillion in Your Inbox Each Week!
Subscribe to NB Notes for news, jobs & on-the-ground insights from the world of emerging markets business.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.