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

Expert Sitings: Amir Alexander Hasson

Expert Sitings: Amir Alexander Hasson Amir Alexander Hasson is the founder and CEO of United Villages, a company that aims to provide the 2 billion people living in the rural areas of developing countries with e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and Internet access. Wi-fiplanet.com With the latest industry news, commentary, and product reviews, Wi-Fi Planet helps me keep my finger on the pulse of new wireless Internet technologies. It?s one place I go to find new product ...

Source

Foreign Policy (link opens in a new window)

Gates Foundation Provides $15.4 Million to Opportunity International To Help Build Microfinance Bank

Opportunity International, one of the world’s largest microfinance organizations, today announced it has received a $5.4 million grant and a $10 million loan from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The $15.4 million of capital will fund start-up microfinance banks to serve the poor in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as expansion of its banking operations in Ghana. Opportunity International operates banks or financial institutions in 28 c...

Source

PR Newswire (link opens in a new window)

PM approves strategy to expand microfinance outreach to 3 mln households

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved the strategy to expand microfinance outreach from one million to three million households by 2010. He was chairing a meeting here Wednesday to review the strategy prepared by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to increase the coverage of microfinance sector in Pakistan. The Prime Minister said Pakistan has come a long way in introducing and familiarizing the micro finance concept. However, strategic steps need to be taken and multiple approaches ...

Source

Associated Press of Pakistan (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Banking for the People

Looking back, we all can remember just a few decades ago, when only the most privileged among us carried a credit card or debit card.? Today, in a global economy facing constant change, the expansion of electronic payment systems has reached previously unimagined levels and now is part of the everyday lives of millions of people.? In a subtle yet profound way, these instruments have also begun to influence economic systems and to positively impact development in a variety of countries.

Source

Latin Trade (link opens in a new window)

Ignore Cheaper Phones At Your Peril, Says Motorola

Consumers in emerging markets may be buying cheap phones with low margins at the moment, but a Motorola executive said Tuesday that phone makers who ignored those markets would miss out on major global trends. Customers in emerging markets do a lot more with their phones than make calls, Motorola’s Chief Technology Officer, Padmasree Warrior, told Reuters in an interview at 3GSM, the world’s biggest wireless trade show. They use text, they sell and...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Insurers Seek Growth in Developing Markets

Seeking potential sources of future growth, AIG and its international rivals are racing to sell insurance in the developing world, from sprawling markets like India to smaller ones like Romania and Nicaragua. In remote areas, insurers must teach the concept of insurance to populations who have never bought any. Sometimes, as in parts of northern Uganda, the local language doesn’t even have a word for it. To penetrate these markets, insurers are devising unusual policies, chargin...

Source

Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

India, Inc. gets back to the basics

Salvation in a sachet is passe now. Rural India will no longer be the playing ground of the FMCG bigwigs alone. In fact, many sectors such as telecom, IT, retail and education are at various stages of striking a deal with the aam aadmi. According to a recent Assocham report, the per capita income of semi-urban Indians is around Rs 15,000 per annum, whereas it?s Rs 7,000 per annum for rural populace. As per its findings, by 2012, the per capita income of rural population will do...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Mobile Carriers Facilitate Cash Transfers

Mobile communications operators and banks joined forces on Monday to make it easier and cheaper for hundreds of millions of immigrants and migrant workers to send money home by using their mobile phones. The aim is to reduce the transaction costs of sending small amounts of cash to just a few percent, from a current 24 percent for amounts as small as $50. Out of the 6.5 billion people on the planet, less than 1 billion have a bank account. The only way to sustainably ...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)