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Are mobile phones better than aid?
Helping people to use technology can combat poverty more effectively than centralised aid programmes according to a leading development entrepreneur.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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One billion smartphones by 2014. Bottom-of-the-pyramid market never looked better
It’s been a while since bottom of the pyramid — famously enunciated by the late management guru C.K. Prahlad — has been perceived to be an attractive market.
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- Technology
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Mobile Money: How Cell Phones Can Fight Hunger in the Sahel
Some five billion people worldwide were using mobile phones in 2010, according to the International Telecommunication Union, with the strongest growth taking place in developing countries. Africa is the fastest growing mobile market. In the past six years, the industry estimates that the number of subscribers has grown nearly 20 percent each year. At this rate, we can expect to see some 735 million cell phone users in Africa by the end of 2012.
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- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- nutrition
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Virtual City gets Sh135m loan from US social fund
Virtual City, a local software development firm, has received a Sh135 million ($1.5 million) convertible loan from Acumen Fund for the development of a mobile-based agricultural application to help small-scale farmers market their produce.The investment represents the latest capital inflows from international investors in the local information technology sector, which is emerging as a key target for venture capitalist firms.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How The Future of Mobile Lies in the Developing World
In less than three decades, the mobile phone has gone from being a status symbol to being a ubiquitous technology that facilitates almost every interaction in our daily lives. One month after the world’s population topped 7 billion in October 2011, the GSM Association announced that mobile SIM cards had reached 6 billion. A 2009 study in India illustrated that every 10 percent increase in mobile penetration leads to a 1.2 percent increase in GDP.
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- Technology
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A Middle Man Could Bring Smartphones to Millions of Mexicans for the First Time
After two years of intentionally losing money in a very smart way, a Mexican cell phone company is set to change the way the country’s consumers use mobile phones to access the internet. If their plan works, it could transform not only the Mexican phone industry, but consumer finance systems in developing countries around the globe.
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- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Grameen Foundation, KfW and CARE’s Access Africa Fund Invest in World’s First 100% Mobile Microfinance Institution
Grameen Foundation, KfW and CARE's Access Africa Fund announced they have each purchased a 25 percent stake in Musoni Kenya, the first microfinance institution to provide financial services to the poor entirely via mobile phones. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, it provides microloans largely to people who are underserved by the formal financial sector. This investment will help Musoni Kenya grow its operations, deepen its penetration in rural areas where financial inclusion is lowest, and pave the way for it to receive a license to accept savings deposits from the Central Bank of Kenya.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance
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Owning a mobile phone does not move you to the middle class
James Ogule, who lives in Namugongo, a Kampala surburb, thinks the vendors selling matooke (plantains) by the road to his house should not be considered middle class.The vendors spend more than $2 (sh5,200) a day and Ogule who works with a government regulatory body thinks equating a middle class to sh5,200 a day is a pity.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa