-
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...
-
Africa Telecoms Summit to Promote Internet Access
A U.N.-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed Internet access to match the continent’s explosive growth in mobile phones, officials said Wednesday. UNITED NATIONS, Sept 19 (Reuters Life!) - A U.N.-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed Internet access to match the continent’s explosive growth in mobile phones, officials said Wednesday. The Oct. 29-30 Connect Africa gathe...
-
India’s Cell-Phone Ride Out of Poverty
Struggling artisans and tradespeople in rural India are finding that mobile phones are their ticket to better sales and better lives Times are good for Ganesh Bicchwe. The festival season in India is around the corner, and in Maheshwar, a hand-loom weaving center in the central India state of Madhya Pradesh, master weaver Bicchwe’s Nokia (NOK ) 3310 mobile phone is ringing busily. A garment store in New Delhi wants 500 scarves?the broad, 3-meter-long, intricately designed, fine cotton ones w...
-
Deutsche Bank Places Micro-Credit Portfolio with Private Investors
Deutsche Bank AG said Wednesday that it has set up an investment portfolio for micro-credit markets, a move aimed at making very small loans available to people in developing countries. FRANKFURT, Germany: Deutsche Bank AG said Wednesday that it has set up an investment portfolio for micro-credit markets, a move aimed at making very small loans available to people in developing countries. The Frankfurt-based bank, Germany’s biggest, said the ?60 million (US$84 million) in bo...
-
Mobile Payments: Macro Hype & Micro Trends
There’s currently a lot of noise in the mobile payments segment. Companies such as Firethorn, mFoundry, even Google recently have garnered considerable attention and coverage. Admittedly I’ve looked at the segment at my personal blog, www.mobilepointview.com, recently with Google Sends SMS Mobile Payments: GPay as well as Mobile Payments: The Tipping Point. I think we need to differentiate and identify what can be labeled as macro forces wher...
-
Beyond the Bottom Line
Oxford Entrepreneurs Are Meant To Consider How to Save the World OXFORD, England -- The main lecture hall at the University of Oxford’s Sa?d Business School isn’t named for a banking tycoon, a high-tech entrepreneur or a big-ticket donor. It honors former South African President Nelson Mandela, a choice many at the school believe is key to understanding Sa?d. It’s a small little tag that stands for something much bigger that we’re about, wh...
-
Global Business Leaders Explore Impact of Technology and Credit
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), in collaboration with Visa International today begin a global conference called Next Generation Access to Finance: Gaining Scale and Reducing Costs with Technology and Credit Scoring. The conference will highlight technologies used by pioneering organizations in the financial services industry, including microfinance organizations, to reduce costs and reach new customers. WASHINGTON, D.C. - September 17,...
-
Making Goods Affordable for Poor
That suggestion has been criticised on the ground that the market is not geared to cater to the poor. Many people oppose the market mechanism even though poverty is generally less in market economies than in government-controlled socialist ones. Here is an issue that deserves further discussion. Basically, there are two ways of giving the poor what they need at a price they can afford. One - the ideal one - is to convert that need into a public good. The second method is to add frills...
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.