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

Local female microentrepreneur off to USA

Bangladeshi microentrepreneur Shamima Khatun (26) left for New York Sunday to attend the closing ceremony of the International Year of Microcredit as a guest of honor. Shamima is one of the four winners of the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards (GMA), organised by the Citigroup Foundation (the philanthropic arm of Citigroup) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). She has been selected as the winner of the Most Innovative Business of the Year ...

Source

Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

Minister Blames Banks over Poverty in Africa

The failure by commercial banks to lend to small and medium-sized businesses in Africa is to blame for rampant poverty on the continent, a Cabinet minister said yesterday. Planning minister Anyang’ Nyong’o hit out at the banks for making return on investment difficult by charging high interest rates on loans. Oracle Business Intelligence The banks rarely touch African businesses and when they do they charge interest rates that make it impossible for ent...

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The East African Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

An interview with Ricci Wolman of the Global Fairness Initiative

Where did you spend your Social Enterprise Summer? I spent my summer working in Washington, DC for The Global Fairness Initiative (GFI). GFI is a an international NGO of global leaders dedicated to promoting innovative, scalable models that extend the benefits of globalization to poor communities around the world. What project(s) did you work on, and what were your primary responsibilities? My primary project was the creation of the Synapse Market Access Fund. ...

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The Harbus Online (link opens in a new window)

CK Prahalad Shares Wisdom

What could draw nearly 300 students out given the dismal, rainy weather on Monday afternoon? It is all in a name: CK Prahalad. A University of Michigan professor, renowned corporate strategist, and internationally best-selling author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Prahalad spoke at the fourth annual Joel and Lois Coleman Social Impact Lecture, sponsored in conjunction with the Legal Studies department and the Wharton Ethics program. Through the generosity of Mr. Coleman, a Wharton...

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Wharton Journal (link opens in a new window)

Access 1513 Internet Prepaid Card Launched

In an effort to help Ghana ’leap-frog’ into the information society proper, Global Access Services Limited in collaboration with Netafrique Dot Com, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) have introduced an Internet prepaid card into the Ghanaian market. Called Access 1513 Internet prepaid card, the card can be used by anyone who has access to a computer with a dial up modem and a Ghana Telecom (GT) telephone line. The card comes with a username, a password and a GT digital telep...

Source

Ghanaian Chronicle (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Julio Maura, executive president of GrupoNueva, describes how his company is set on making products affordable for Latin America?s poorest farmers. Virtuous circles, environmental footprints, sustainability matrices ? corporate responsibility now has a new shape to add to its conceptual armoury: the pyramid. Coined by CK Prahalad in his much profiled book ?The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid?, the theory centres on the world?s three or four billion poor people who li...

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Ethical Corporation (link opens in a new window)

Yehu Microfinance plays big role in Kenya

One of the greatest stories in the CHOICE community is the rise of Yehu Bank, the microcredit organization that CHOICE board member Louis Pope developed, originally as a CHOICE program. Although Yehu was later spun off for accounting reasons, they still work closely together. And everyone in the CHOICE community can be proud of what Yehu accomplishes, supplying loans to nearly 7,000 women in Kenya with a 97% repayment rate. Water plays a powerful role in our lives. In the village of...

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choicehumanitarian.org (link opens in a new window)

From charity to business

(The following appeared in the full article From Charity to Business) A credit to the industry ProCredit came to banking by an indirect route. Its founder, C.P. Zeitinger, began his career in the 1970s by examining Latin American financial institutions that were getting money from German development agencies. When he pointed out that the whole thing was a waste of money, he was, in effect, fired by the agencies . After working on the conversion of various not...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)