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

High finance reaches Bangladesh’s poor

Excerpt: Tiny loans for Bangladesh’s rural poor became part of a groundbreaking financial product on Thursday through one of the world’s first microcredit securitisations. BRAC, a Bangladeshi anti-poverty non-governmental organisation (NGO), said the securitisation would provide it with $180 million of financing over six years, helping it to make small loans to some of the poorest people in the world. BRAC’s deal is the latest example of the microcr...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)

The Myth of the New India

Opinion Excerpt: INDIA is a roaring capitalist success story. So says the latest issue of Foreign Affairs; and last week many leading business executives and politicians in India celebrated as Lakshmi Mittal, the fifth richest man in the world, finally succeeded in his hostile takeover of the Luxembourgian steel company Arcelor. India’s leading business newspaper, The Economic Times, summed up the general euphoria over the event in its regular feature, The Global India...

Source

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

Small generator aims to empower Africans

Excerpt: Originally created to give an emergency kick-start to stalled boat engines, the sleek little South African-designed machine, pumped with one foot, can charge a cell phone battery in five minutes or a car battery in 30. The device’s creators, who plan to distribute it across swaths of Africa far from the power grid, hope it will energize economic development efforts as effectively as it does dead cell phones. Residents of Musheri Center, fit but fatigued from bicycling lon...

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Peso power brings hope to poor

Excerpt: E very weekend Hilario Amador makes the short journey to the city centre of Zacatecas where he deposits 120 pesos with Patrimonio Hoy, a self-help building scheme run by Cemex, Mexico’s largest cement company. The money is equal to about 20 per cent of his weekly wage at a local abattoir and it has allowed the 38-year-old to receive regular supplies of the materials he needs to tile the floor, repair the roof and build two extra rooms...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Business Joins African Effort to Cut Malaria

Excerpt: With malaria spread across southern Mozambique, executives at the international mining company Billiton expected some workers to call in sick as it began building a massive new aluminum smelter amid the cornfields here. What they did not expect was that nearly one in three employees would fall ill ? 6,600 cases in just two years. And they certainly did not expect 13 deaths, not after the company had built a medical clinic, doused the construction site with pesticides and hand...

Source

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

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Banco ProCredit looks to boost loan portfolio 57% this year – Ecuador

Excerpt: Ecuadorian niche bank Banco ProCredit aims to increase its loan portfolio to US$115mn by the end of this year, up 57% on end-2005, CEO Pedro Arriola told BNamericas. The bank’s strategy focuses on strong growth in the small and microenterprises segment, a significant increase in its deposits base and development of a wide range of financial products, the executive said. The average loan extended by ProCredit is US$2,500 and its clients typically earn just US$5...

Source

Business News Americas (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Uganda: USAID Pushes for Rural Mobile Banks

BANKING institutions have been urged to start rural mobile banking services to attract more people into the banking industry and help the country instil a savings culture; much lacking in Uganda. The service that involves making banking transactions through a combination of banking technologies such as Point of Sales Services, Automated Teller Machines, Mini-ATMs (Movable ATMs) and mobile phones does not necessarily require bankers to visit banks. (...

Source

The Monitor (Kampala), D. Livingstone Ssempijja (link opens in a new window)

Small business growth could reduce poverty in Indonesia: World Bank

Excerpt: Small businesses, which employ millions of Indonesians, could become major engines of economic growth in this cash-strapped country and help reduce poverty, the World Bank has said. Indonesia’s 15.7 million small enterprises make up more than 90 percent of all businesses and employ up to 60 percent of the workforce, outside agriculture, but their growth is hindered by access to credit and poor infrastructure, the World Bank’s Indonesia director said in a report rel...

Source

TodayOnline.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific