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Fertile Ground: Hedge Funds Travel to Africa
With stocks in more-traditional emerging markets like Brazil and Russia still close to historical highs, some hedge funds are turning to resource-rich sub-Saharan Africa for investments. The push reflects both the uptick in some of the region’s economies and the growth of hedge funds -- loosely regulated pools of private capital -- and their search for new frontiers. It’s a combination of falling returns in all the traditional emerging markets, cash flowing into hedge fu...
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Uganda Gets SMS, Internet Banking
DUCONT, a Dubai-based information technology service provider, has teamed up with Uganda’s Solutions For Business to support financial institutions in the country. Officials said during a presentation on October 4 that the partnership would reduce on the costs of banking services and eventually eliminate long queues at the commercial banks. Solutions For Business Executive Director Saddiq Mwai said: Working with Ducont is an opportunity for Ugandans to access over...
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MFIs Want Moneylenders Regulated
MICRO-Finance Institutions (MFIs) have asked the Government to check the higher interest rates levied by moneylenders who have threatened the industry. While MFIs’ interest rates are between 19%-29%, moneylenders’ rates are 30% and above. Money lending is legal, but requires written contracts between the lender and the borrower. The moneylender is obliged to keep proper records of accounts. Unlike MFIs, moneylenders do not require application, ...
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ICICI Offers New Remittance Products
Buoyed by the robust performance of its remittances business, private sector banking powerhouse, ICICI Bank plans to launch a slew of innovative products in this segment before the end of this fiscal. The bank also plans to scale up its presence in the Gulf besides exploring alliance possibilities with overseas banks to boost this business, especially in the emerging markets. We have a few innovatively-structured products tailor-made for the remittances market in the ...
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Kalam unveils LIC’s micro iinsurance product
President A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday unveiled Life Insurance Corporation’s insurance product which seeks to benefit economically underprivileged segments of society. The new policy, Jeevan Madhur, will cover individuals in 18-60 year age group. The minimum sum assured under the plan is Rs 5,000 while maximum is Rs 30,000. The premium for the policy can be paid weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly. The minimum premium is Rs 25 pe...
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China sets up special fund to support SMEs
China has set up a special fund to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF). The funds, which come from the central government’s budget, will offer China’s SMEs free financial aid and loan repayment subsidies of up to 2 million yuan (250,000 U.S. dollars) per project, according to a policy document issued by the MOF and the National Development and Reform Commission. The MOF said the fund aims t...
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Emerging market risks often ignored
A significant proportion of European companies making investments in emerging markets are ignoring serious risks that would be deal killers in their own markets, according to a new survey published on Friday. The findings of the study by Deloitte, the business advisory firm, suggests that in their rush to tap into new growth opportunities, more than 20 per cent of the top 100 of Europe?s top infrastructure companies polled are undeterred by bribery, corruption or money-laundering. Mor...
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Private Equity Inflow ’May Support Rand’
PRIVATE equity investment flows into SA over the next couple of years are expected to help support the rand and partly compensate for a drop in foreign direct investment, according to experts. Following a surge in investment over the past couple of years, driven by deals such as Barclays’ purchase of a majority stake in Absa and Vodafone’s purchase of a further stake in Vodacom, it was feared that foreign direct investment would dry up. However, this could be supple...
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