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SMEs Overtake Formal Market
The small and medium enterprises (SME) sector has greater potential to create much-needed jobs than the country’s large businesses given its labour intensive nature and the use of natural and local resources, according to Herbert Jauch from the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI). Windhoek, Aug 13, 2007 (New Era/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The small and medium enterprises (SME) sector has greater potential to create much-needed jobs than the country’s large business...
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London Profits While Africa Awaits Kyoto Benefit
Huge profits made by London-based brokers who arrange emissions-cutting projects in developing countries contrast with little benefit for the world’s poorest nations, company and United Nations data shows. The Kyoto Protocol on global warming allows rich countries to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets by paying poor nations to cut emissions on their behalf, using the so-called clean development mechanism (CDM). But evidence is emerging that while brokers stand to mak...
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Innovating for the bottom of the pyramid
How Indian Industry is managing quality? ? A major objective of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Mission for Innovation in Manufacturing is to sensitise the business community to look at the bottom of the pyramid, where innovations are really required. For the upper and middle sections of the society innovative products will always be available from the West....
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Business More than Government or Civil Society is Equipped to Lead us Towards a Sustainable World
Can a business go green and yet make a profit? Professor Stuart Hart, a leading authority on sustainability and business strategy thinks it is just a matter of changing mindsets. Hart is the SC Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell University. In his book, Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World’s Most Difficult Problems’, Hart argues that companies can become the catalyst for a truly sustaina...
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Capitalists Should Mine Bottom of Pyramid
Most businesses focus on high profit margins from the world’s richest 800 million people while neglecting the other approximately four billion people living at the bottom of the economic pyramid. For years, market capitalism has been widely regarded as the virtual polar opposite of human values. On the one hand, its endless exploitation of the limited natural resources and pollution pose great threats to the sustainable development of both the environment and society.
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Borrowers benefit of MFI competition
Finally, this is one news that will make the man on the street happy. In an era of rising interest rates, microfinance institutions have decided to absorb the higher cost of funds themselves, thanks to competition. Some banks, particularly state-owned ones, who lend directly to the borrower, have not passed on the higher costs since they feel that these portfolios are too small to impact their balance sheets. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) rely upon the private sector a...
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Microfinance on Radar
Private Equity (PE) funds, which are known to sense big opportunities in businesses, now see a potential in low-profile microfinance institutions (MFI). Recent times have seen a clutch of deals in the MFI space involving PE funds. JM Financial India Fund ? a $225 million PE fund sponsored by JM Financial ? Old Lane Partners and Delhi-based Lok Capital ? a Mauritius-based microfinance venture capital fund ? together have invested $12 million in Spandana, a leading MFI. In ...
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Visa Credit Cards Issuance Grew 37%
The Demand for Credit Payment Solutions by Entry-Level Consumers Was a Significant Driver for Growth. MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Visa International Latin American and Caribbean Region (LAC) Point-of-Sale (POS) volume increased 26 percent to US$116.3 billion during the four quarters ending on March 31, 2007. Visa attributed this growth mainly to the credit card segment, which rose 37 percent in the number of credit cards issued versus the same period last year and now accounts for 91.3 million cards...
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