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

New business in new markets

Excerpt: Despite some progress, the Millennium Development Goals remain elusive. The role of the private sector in helping to deliver these goals is increasingly being recognized, and many are urging the business community to mobilize and strengthen its contribution to poverty-reduction strategies. A partnership between the Netherlands’ development organization SNV and the WBCSD aims at helping companies in Central America and the Andean regions do more pro-poor business, especia...

Source

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Fighting Poverty With $2-a-Day Jobs

Excerpt: Jacqueline Novogratz, a veteran of the Rockefeller Foundation and a former consultant to the World Bank, talks enthusiastically about the development of a company in Africa where some 2,000 women earn, on average, $1.80 a day producing antimalarial bed netting. With the assistance of a $350,000 loan from an American investor, the business started making the nets nearly three years ago and is likely to add 1,000 more jobs within the next year. Ms. Novogratz is not an outsourci...

Source

The New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Motorola May See Gains In Emerging Markets

Excerpt: Motorola, the number two manufacturer of wireless headsets, could see market share gains in both developed and emerging markets in the second quarter, according to a Monday report by Morgan Stanley. We expect results to demonstrate our thesis of share gains and margin expansion is playing out, said Scott Coleman, the author of the report and an analyst for Morgan Stanley. Guidance will show there is more progress ahead [and] we would be buyers of the stock g...

Source

Forbes (link opens in a new window)

UN and Microsoft for small business in Africa

Excerpt: Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, and the UN are forming a partnership to supply information technology (IT) and other support to small businesses in Africa. Microsoft and the UN Industrial Development Organisation plan to set up technology centres in African communities, where entrepreneurs will be able to access business support services, information, training and computers....

Source

Bloomberg via IOL (link opens in a new window)

Rwanda: Rural Areas to Access Solar Energy

Excerpt: The president of Solar Energy Africa, John Ssemanda, has said that the organization has an ambitious project of accessing solar energy to rural areas to boost economic development. He said this to Bugesera residents, last week, while touring a solar energy site that was installed in Maranyondo village in Bugesera District. He noted that solar light Africa project was introduced in Rwanda by the first lady, Jeannette Kagame, the patron for the Solar Light Africa in Rwanda.

Source

AllAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Facing global challenges while turning a profit

Excerpt: Eighteen months ago two veteran business executives, Brian Richardson and Charles Rowlinson, set up a cellphone-based banking company with the sole purpose of serving the estimated 16 million poor people in South Africa who do not have access to basic banking facilities - around 60 percent of the population. ? Today Wizzit employs 800 previously unemployed Wizzkids to promote its product. The company is on target to break even this year. ? Many companies ...

Source

The International Herald Tribune (link opens in a new window)

’One lakh’ car to roll out from 3-4 places: Tata

Excerpt: Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata on Friday said the ambitious Rs 1 lakh car will be manufactured from three-four places, including West Bengal and Uttaranchal. It will be in West Bengal, it will be in Uttaranchal. It will be manufactured from three-four places, Tata said here after meeting the Finance Minister. He said, the launch of the car would create a new paradigm in low-cost personal transport, carve out a new market segment and reach a broader base o...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

In War-Torn Congo, Going Wireless to Reach Home

Excerpt: As surely as the light bulb and the automobile before them, the cellphone and text messaging are radically changing the way people live in the developing world. In widespread use for about five years in much of Africa, technology long taken for granted by the world’s rich has made life easier, safer and more prosperous for the world’s poor. For the first time, millions of Africans are able to communicate easily with people who are beyond shouting distance. Farmers and...

Source

The Washington Post (link opens in a new window)