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Uganda: ICT Boosts Farmers’ Profits
If used properly, Information Communication Technology (ICT) could be used to develop agriculture, for example we can now just call and get to know the prices of our products. We can also access them from MTN’s 197 and 198. Even middlemen who come looking for the products find us already aware of the prices, they no longer cheat us, Kamya says. With a village phone at her residence, she only needs to call and know about the market prices for her red pepper, tomatoes, potatoes, ca...
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For India’s Traditional Fisherman, Cellphones Deliver a Sea Change
A convenience taken for granted in wealthy nations, the cellphone is putting cash in the pockets of people for whom a dollar is a good day’s wage. And it has made market-savvy entrepreneurs out of sheepherders, rickshaw drivers and even the acrobatic men who shinny up palm trees to harvest coconuts here in Kerala state. The cellphone is bringing new economic clout, profit and productivity to Rajan and millions of other poor laborers in India, the world’s fastest-growing cellphone market....
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Malaria Treatment Grabs $20M
Amyris Biotechnologies is currently focusing on an alternative treatment for malaria, as the disease is becoming resistant to common drugs. The treatment itself already exists in the form of artemisinin, taken from wormwood. But extracting the drug is both complicated and expensive to do; Amyris is looking end-run the process by synthetically producing an in-house, low-cost version of drug. It?s a mission that carries big names: the University of California, Berkeley, and the Institute for One W...
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U.S. Group Reaches Deal to Provide Laptops to All Libyan Schoolchildren
The government of Libya reached an agreement on Tuesday with One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit United States group developing an inexpensive, educational laptop computer, with the goal of supplying machines to all 1.2 million Libyan schoolchildren by June 2008. The project, which is intended to supply computers broadly to children in developing nations, was conceived in 2005 by a computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte. His goal is to desi...
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Microfinance Institutions Reach Crucial Agreement with Government in Andhra Pradesh
In a broad reaching agreement, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) operating in Andhra Pradesh, India have reached an agreement with the state government on MFI interest rates, product portfolio, inter-MFI competition, credit disbursement and loan recovery methodologies. An agreement pertaining to a smaller jurisdiction ? the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh was earlier reported on MicroCapital. As per the terms of the agreement, MFIs have agreed to an interest rate ceiling of 15%. Th...
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US Banks Woo Migrants, Legal or Otherwise
As U.S. leaders craft policies to curb illegal immigration from Mexico, the U.S. Federal Reserve is devising programs to extend banking services to undocumented immigrants. A new remittance program aims to bring Mexican migrants who send money home into the mainstream U.S. financial system, regardless of their immigration status. Dubbed Directo a Mexico, the remittance program enables U.S. commercial banks to make money transfers for Mexican workers through the Federal Res...
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Fertile Ground: Hedge Funds Travel to Africa
With stocks in more-traditional emerging markets like Brazil and Russia still close to historical highs, some hedge funds are turning to resource-rich sub-Saharan Africa for investments. The push reflects both the uptick in some of the region’s economies and the growth of hedge funds -- loosely regulated pools of private capital -- and their search for new frontiers. It’s a combination of falling returns in all the traditional emerging markets, cash flowing into hedge fu...
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Uganda Gets SMS, Internet Banking
DUCONT, a Dubai-based information technology service provider, has teamed up with Uganda’s Solutions For Business to support financial institutions in the country. Officials said during a presentation on October 4 that the partnership would reduce on the costs of banking services and eventually eliminate long queues at the commercial banks. Solutions For Business Executive Director Saddiq Mwai said: Working with Ducont is an opportunity for Ugandans to access over...