NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Electronic Payments Gain Favour With Banks

By the end of this year, Kenya’s banks expect to issue nearly half a million new credit cards. Last year only seven banks were issuing the cards. Today they are more than 16. These developments in the private sector are mirrored in the public sphere. Earlier this year, the Central Bank of Kenya launched the Kenya Electronic Payment and Settlement System (KEPSS), which enables customers to pay and receive large payments on a real-time basis. In a society where ’cash is kin...

Source

The Nation (Nairobi) (link opens in a new window)

Latin American companies find new business partners in unexpected places

?We need to provide opportunities all the way down to the base of the pyramid to alleviate poverty? International companies in Colombia and El Salvador are learning what it takes to do business with the low-income communities in their own backyards. Sustainable livelihoods is a practical way to do business in Latin America, sa...

Source

WBCSD News (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Business Schools Increasingly Provide Education in Social and Environmental Issues, Survey Finds

Business schools are doing a better job of preparing students to navigate social and environmental business issues, in part by offering more courses in ethics, corporate social responsibility, and environmental sustainability, according to survey results that are scheduled to be released today. Among the institutions surveyed, 54 percent require one or more courses in ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, or business and society -- an increase of almost 60 percent ...

Source

Chronicle of Higher Education (link opens in a new window)

Poor rural India? It’s a richer place by Anand Giridharadas

The chasm between India’s flourishing cities and bleak rural hinterland is narrowing. ? Spread across 650,000 villages, with an average population of 1,100, rural villagers were long imagined by city dwellers as primitive, impoverished and irrelevant, something to drive past on the way to something else. ? That is no longer the case. ? A new prosperity is sprouting in rural India, with tens of millions entering the pressure-cooker-and-television-owning class and...

Source

International Herald Tribune (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

China, India, Turkey, Vietnam, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria Offer Greatest Investment Opportunities

Winning Brands, Winning Formats are Keys to Success LONDON, 11 October 2005 ? Seven countries, China, India, Turkey, Vietnam, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria, offer the strongest investment opportunities for retail and consumer companies according to the fourth edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Retail & Consumer study titled, From Beijing to Budapest: Winning Brands, Winning Formats. Of the seven priorities, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria joined the list for the...

Source

PricewaterhouseCoopers Press Release (link opens in a new window)

The company is working towards enabling the online delivery model, where customers can place orders

After having launched its low-cost PC in the Indian market, HCL is looking forward to injecting new vigor to its existing distribution strategy to tap the huge market potential in the Indian region. With an aim to increase its distribution footprint in the country, the company is all set to work on a two-pronged strategy. As part of this, HCL would be working closely with popular Internet portals in order to market its affordable product and the company would also be strengthening its existing d...

Source

DQ Channels (link opens in a new window)

Cell phones reshaping Africa

Amina Harun, a 45-year-old farmer, used to traipse around for hours looking for a working pay phone on which to call the markets and find the best prices for her fruit. Then cell phones changed her life. We can easily link up with customers, brokers and the market, she says, sitting between two piles of watermelons at Wakulima Market in Kenya’s capital. Harun is one of a rapidly swelling army of wired-up Africans -- an estimated 100 million of t...

Source

CNN.com / AP (link opens in a new window)

Banco Uno Panama and Banco Uno El Salvador are granted a seven-year loan totaling USD 27.5 million by the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and its German partner DEG. The loan is to be used to extend Banco Uno’s credit card services to lower-income households. This will give many such households in Central America for the first time access to financial services. This will allow them to borrow and save money and thus gain access to the formal economy. Grupo Financiero...

Source

Finance for Development (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America