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CGAP, Grameen Foundation, and MTN to Invest in Mobile Money Products for the Unbanked
Today at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, CGAP, Grameen Foundation, and MTN Uganda announced plans to introduce a new initiative to research and develop mobile financial products for the poor. CGAP, an independent policy and research center dedicated to advancing financial access for the world's poor, together with MTN and Grameen Foundation will provide US$1 million in financing to this initiative. The aim is to build upon the extensive research already conducted through Grameen Foundation's Application Laboratory (AppLab) in Uganda and to leverage MTN's successful Mobile Money service.
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Creating an impact
FOUNDER and chairwoman of Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX) in Singapore Durreen Shahnaz is seeking to create the Impact Exchange a social enterprise exchange. “By investing through the Impact Exchange, impact investors can significantly lower their market research and due diligence costs, as well as have liquidity in their investments thus allowing for more impact and wealth to be created and brought into the space,” she says.
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- South Asia
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- impact investing
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Omidyar Network and ACCION Invest US $3.2 Million in Mobile Transactions International
Omidyar Network and ACCION International announced today that they have invested US $3.2 million in Mobile Transactions International, a Zambia-based company that leverages mobile technology and an agent network to enable financial transactions across the Zambian economy. The $4 million investment round also includes $500,000 in converted debt funding from Mennonite Economic Development Associates.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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World’s Extreme Poverty Cut in Half Since 1990
The share of people living in extreme poverty around the world continued to decline in recent years despite financial crises and surging food prices, the World Bank said today. The bank said preliminary estimates for 2010 showed that the world’s extreme poverty rate — people living below $1.25 a day — had fallen to less than half of its 1990 value. That meets the first Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty from its 1990 level, before its 2015 deadline, the Washington-based development institution said.
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Opinion: Bill Gates’ Support of GM Crops is Wrong Approach for Africa
Bill Gates' support of genetically modified (GM) crops as a solution for world hunger is of concern to those of us involved in promoting sustainable, equitable and effective agricultural policies in Africa. There are two primary shortcomings to Gates' approach.
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- Agriculture
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Responsible lending key to microfinance
Mumbai: Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are still struggling for recovery after a crisis triggered by an Andhra Pradesh law in October 2010 that reined in MFIs, which lend small sums of money to poor borrowers; the state is India’s biggest market for such loans. The MFI sector was the subject of a Mint Clarity Through Debate event in Mumbai last week. Responsible lending is is key for the sector’s revival, according to the participants. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor K.C. Chakrabarty; director of the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning Usha Thorat; Basix group chairman Vijay Mahajan; chairman and managing director of Small Industries Development Bank of India Sushil Muhnot; International Finance Corporation’s regional manager, financial markets and private equity, Manoj Prashar; and Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd chairman Chandra Shekhar Ghosh were the panellists in the discussion. Mint’s deputy managing editor Tamal Bandyopadhyay moderated the discussion. Edited excerpts:
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- South Asia
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- microfinance
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Former Chairman of SKS Microfinance Akula Shares Lessons Learned
Vikram Akula, the former Chairman of SKS Microfinance, broke his silence today about the mistakes he made in his social venture, in a speech at the Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard. Akula acknowledged the legitimacy of the criticism he had received from Mohammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor and Founder of Grameen Bank, who had long taken issue with SKS’s deployment of private capital in microfinance and its profit orientation.
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- microfinance
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IT-training helps alleviate rural poverty
Farmer Le Thi Cham, 52, was very happy to find her daughter who was adopted by a French family 12 years ago. A resident of Van Tho Village in the northern province of Thai Nguyen's Dai Tu District, Cham had only words of praise for a pilot project designed to improve computer use and internet access in the provinces of Thai Nguyen, Nghe An and Tra Vinh. Thanks to the project, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, her family has been reunited.
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