NextBillion - A WDI Publication

BOI/UNDP: Nigeria?s household energy market worth $5.1b

The Bank of Industry (BOI)and United Nations Development Programme (BOI/UNDP) partnership has identified the potential in investing in household energy through supplies of energy-efficient equipment and bulbs adding that the market is worths $5.1 billion. The Project Manager, UNDP/BOI Access to Renewable Energy Project, Segun Adaju in his paper titled ’Investing in clean energy for the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) in Nigeria’ presented at a forum in Lagos, said the BOP is the ...

Source

The Nation (Nigeria) (link opens in a new window)

More Corporate Companies Should Adopt Social Enterprise Ethos

Recent political and financial events have seen businesses retrench, dig in and attempt to ride out the storm. To many, this suggests that the corporate world is being indifferent to its social responsibility. Community projects are being curtailed and cash donations to charities drying up. The impact can only be detrimental. As austerity measures deepen, are big businesses unwittingly contributing to social injustice? If so, who will fill the gap they are leaving? In the UK, soci...

Source

The Guardian (link opens in a new window)

Case studies: investing in bottom of pyramid

Dfid’s role models for its new private sector approach in India include the US-based Acumen Fund, part of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, the US Rockefeller Foundation and Mumbai-based Aavishkaar Investment. Samridhi Dfid has chosen the Small Industries Development Bank for India to channel investments to small enterprises, in its first private sector development programme in India. ...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Ethiopia Invests in Farmers to Achieve Country’s Middle-income Ambitions

Fields of red sorghum in terraced fields that stretch into the distance are a common sight in the scenic mountains of eastern Ethiopia , giving a misleading impression of bountiful harvests despite this year’s drought in the east Africa . Farmers tie five or more tall sorghum stalks...

Source

The Guardian (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Social Business: A More Sustainable Way to Help in Haiti?

Children dressed in school uniforms sit in rows listening to one of their classmates sing a song while snacks are passed around. Two years ago, before a devastating earthquake struck the island, they were in a different location in a building that has since been demolished on a nearby plot of land here in Léogâne, Haiti. Now these youngsters and their families are getting another chance with the help of an innovative antipoverty effort that combines business tactics with so...

Source

The Chronicle of Philanthropy (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Agriculture

ICT Vital in War Against Poverty

THE application of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in gathering, analysing and disseminating market information to businesses and agricultural producers has been cited as a significant strategy in poverty reduction. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing, Dr Shaban Mwinjaka, made the remark in Dar es Salaam over the weekend while opening a stakeholders’ meeting on Management Information Systems (MIS) Strategy, operational Framework...

Source

allAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

The Sticky Challenge Facing Africa

As the food crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, so do the campaigns asking for support and donations. Some of the money raised goes on the purchase of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), small packets of a sticky, peanut butter-like paste, fortified with minerals and vitamins, that can reverse severe malnutrition within six weeks. Products such as Pl...

Source

The Guardian (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Microfinance Banks to Construct 500 Houses

Microfinance Banks in Lagos, under the auspices of the National Association of Microfinance Banks, Lagos State Chapter, NAMBLAG, have pledged to undertake a micro-housing project that will see them catering for the housing needs of a vast majority of the low income earners in the society. Chairman of the Association, Mr. Olufemi Babajide, in his address to members in the report for the 2010 financial year, said the association plans to build 500 houses for the active poor with flexible ...

Source

Vanguard (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa