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South Africa urged to swap mines for microchips, by Rebecca Harrison
South Africa must end its dependence on raw materials and become an IT pioneer for the third world, industry and government officials said on Tuesday. Opening an African technology research institute in Pretoria, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said South Africa must train information technology (IT) experts to plug a skills gap and transform an industry still dominated by white men 11 years after the end of apartheid. And researchers should focus on inventing systems ai...
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- Reuters
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India to Build Sh4b Satellite Network for Africa, by John Oyuke
Africa could soon have a Sh3.8 billion satellite network built by the Government of India. In a proposal to the African Union (AU), an Indian technical team says the project aims at facilitating communications among African leaders. It will also help the continent address education and health challenges. The proposal identifies increased frequency of communicating between African leaders and the AU Commission as one of the benefits. It will also offer telemedicine and facilitate ...
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- The East African Standard
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Mobile Phones Change Ways Africans Live And Do Business, by Bruce Greenberg
Popularity linked to expansion of private capital The rapid growth in mobile phone use throughout the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is helping to transform national economies, producing a thriving entrepreneurial class and marked growth in private capital, according to Leonard Waverman, an economist with the London Business School. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington May 5 on a panel of fellow economists and representativ...
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- United States Department of State
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A realistic framework for an ideal world, by Alison Maitland
Business leaders from companies including BP, Deloitte and Nestl? will next week spend two days closeted with United Nations executives and development agencies at a hotel near London to discuss how the private sector can make an effective impact on poverty. The meeting, to be held under the auspices of the International Business Leaders’ Forum, an educational charity that promotes good corporate citizenship, will also consider what the commitment from business should be when the ...
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- Financial Times
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Major victories for micro-finance, by John Authers
Compartamos (Let’s share in Spanish) started life as a non-governmental organisation, and gained its seed capital from multilateral funds. In 2000, it converted into a limited-objective financial organisation (sofol for its initials in Spanish). That allows it to offer loans, although it is still blocked.but still blocks it from taking in deposit Now with more than 300,000 clients, its next plan is to convert itself into a bank, so that it can take in savings an...
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- Financial Times
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Power in the palm of your hand – Freeplay to launch self-powered mobile charger in Africa, by Mapara
Access to energy can be a serious obstacle for many mobile phone users who need to re-charge their phones when they find their battery is dead but have no means in doing so. This in turn is a major problem for mobile operators who are constantly losing revenue from the reduced call time. In light of this, Freeplay Energy, a company that specialises in self-sufficient products that gives freedom and independence from traditional power sources, has developed a solution that may help elimin...
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- Balancing Act
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Former Brazil slave village leaps into digital age, by Terry Wade
Nestled in a narrow tropical valley 180 miles southwest of South America’s largest city of Sao Paulo, the village lacks phone lines and other basic services. Some of its 300 residents still live in homes made of sticks and mud. But a government experiment is sweeping Ivaporunduva into the digital age. As part of a larger plan to fight rural poverty, the government has installed a satellite-based Internet connection that is ending years of isolation for the village. Residents can m...
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- Reuters
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John Templeton Foundation Awards $1.5 Million In Support of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty
John Templeton Foundation has awarded prizes of $1.5 million to three prominent think tanks in support of initiatives that explore what works in enterprise-based solutions to poverty. Winners of the Templeton Foundation What Works in Enterprise-Based Solutions to Poverty awards are: Fraser Institute, Vancouver BC, Canada, for a new initiative to measure economic freedom and how free enterprise throughout the Arab world is lifting individuals and families out of poverty in ...
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- Business Wire
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