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Ecuador Expanding Access to Microcredit for Low-Income Women
Ecuador will expand access to microcredit, particularly among low-income women, through a $50 million loan approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) aimed at increasing employment opportunities and reducing poverty. The National Program for Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Solidarity (PNFPEES) will be the executing agency for the program, which will contribute to its strategy for fostering economic inclusion with particular emphasis on financing for women entrepreneur...
- Region
- Latin America
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Microfinance Industry Going All Out to Regain Lost Glory with Women Power
HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: Beleaguered microfinance industry is turning to women power to lift it out of the depths. The fairer sex is increasingly occupying the rank and file of recovery agents of lenders to the poor as the industry attempts to restore its past glory after charges of molestation and browbeating made it an unwanted child. "We will push the MFIs to have more women on rolls once the industry, currently in fire...
- Region
- South Asia
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Africa Rising
THE shops are stacked six feet high with goods, the streets outside are jammed with customers and salespeople are sweating profusely under the onslaught. But this is not a high street during the Christmas-shopping season in the rich world. It is the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria, every day of the year. Many call it the world’s biggest. Up to 3m people go there daily to buy rice and soap, computers and construction equipment. It is a hub for traders from the Gulf of Guinea, a region b...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Frequent Flier Miles at the Base of the Pyramid
OK, so you are a cell-phone user in rural Nigeria or Zimbabwe, and your provider is Econet Wireless. You’ve been a customer for a while, so you’ve accumulated loyalty rewards, just like airline frequent flier points. You live in a small hut in a village with no electricity, so you can’t use your phone as much as you would like, because you can only charge it on market day at the district headquarters. But now you can get a big discount on a solar lantern, or if you hav...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mining Proves a Test of Mettle for Peru’s Ambitions of Economic Development
The resignation of Peru ’s deputy environment minister amid violent protests against the country’s largest ever mining project has highlighted how weak institutions, unable to ensure decisions are made on the basis of robust information, undermine green policymaking in Latin America. José de Echave quit in late November, calling environmental impact studies on the $4.8bn (£3.1...
- Tags
- mining
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Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards 2011 Honors Individual Enterprise
The Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards 2011 recognized nine micro entrepreneurs and a community owned enterprise at a ceremony presided over by Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The Citi Micro Entrepreneur Awards 2011 received over 800 applications from 77 nominating organizations. There were 74 % women nominations and four new categories introduced - youth, green, innovative and community owned enterprise. The 2011 awards took into account geographical, socio-e...
- Region
- South Asia
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Prince of Poverty Leaves Behind Questionable Legacy
Vikram Akula was the golden boy of microfinance when he launched his company SKS. How did things go so horribly wrong?. The story of Vikram Akula is almost like a classic Greek tragedy with epic peaks, troughs and betrayals that could easily make up a Hollywood movie. Akula remains a controversial character, whose very name incites admiration and criticism in equal measure. Some say that he gave birth to the microfinance industry as we know it in India. Others say that his model of lend...
- Region
- South Asia
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Endeavor Takes Center Stage at Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Istanbul
ISTANBUL--( BUSINESS WIRE )--This week, more than 120 Endeavor network members have gathered in Istanbul to participate in the 2 nd ...
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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