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A continent goes shopping
AFRICAN consumers are underserved and overcharged, reckons Frank Braeken, Unilever’s boss in Africa. Until recently, South Africans who craved shampoo made specially for African hair, or cosmetics for black skin, had little choice besides costly American imports. Unilever spotted an opportunity: its Motions range of shampoos and conditioners is now a hit.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The size and scale of Chinese social entrepreneurship
While the social entrepreneurship field has been around for several decades in some countries, it has only begun to emerge in China in the last decade. So there is little understanding about the current organisational structures, origin, size, scope of work and impact of social enterprises in China.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Does the one-for-one social enterprise model paper over the cracks?
Giving one product away for every one sold has its benefits, but some believe it ignores the deeper roots of poverty
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Ghana: Midland to Deplore 300 ATMs, 5,000 POS Devices
Midland Savings &Loans Company Limited, the leader in Ghana's microfinance sector has disclosed that it would add up four more branches this year to it existing branches to further bring banking services to its numerous customers across the country.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance
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Acumen Fund Announces Duncan Onyango as New Director of Acumen Fund East Africa
Nairobi, Kenya, August 15, 2012 – Acumen Fund, a pioneering nonprofit global venture firm addressing poverty across Africa and in South Asia, today announced Duncan Onyango as the new Director of Acumen Fund East Africa. Mr. Onyango joins from Rift Valley Railways having served as Group Chief Finance Officer. He replaces Biju Mohandas who is leaving Acumen after five years of leading Acumen’s local office and building the portfolio to its current size of $29 million in cumulative investments. Mr. Mohandas will play an informal role through this transition.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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With $2M from Eric Schmidt, biNu brings smartphone apps to dumb phones
Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures is leading a $2 million Series A round in biNu, an Australian startup that enables feature phones to run cloud-based smartphone apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and Google. BiNu highlights the opportunity in developing markets where smartphone penetration is low.
- Categories
- Technology
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UN Unveils Sustainable Devt Network on Global Problems
The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, has launched a new independent global network of research centres, universities and technical institutions to help find solutions for some of the world's most pressing environmental, social and economic problems.
- Categories
- Environment
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TISS, DBS Bank tie-up to support social entrepreneurship
Singapore-based DBS Bank and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) joined hands to launch a programme which will support social entrepreneurship.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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