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Bezos and Gates-Backed Firm Fights for DRC’s Mineral Data in Exchange for More Investments
The dispute between the US mining firm, Kobold Metals, backed by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, and Belgium's AfricaMuseum over the digitization of colonial-era maps of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be intensifying.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- corporations, data, mining, renewable energy
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World Bank Group’s IFC Invests in Malaysia’s Zetrix AI to Improve Access to Digital Public Infrastructure Services
IFC’s 155.6 million Malaysian Ringgit ($40 million) investment will support the development and rollout of new, blockchain-based DPI applications and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled products that aim to improve digital inclusion, access to services, and economic efficiency in Malaysia and the broader ASEAN region.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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The African Development Bank Group and the United Nations Development Programme Have Launched the AI 10 Billion Initiative
The AI 10 Billion Initiative is a co-designed partnership between the Bank Group, UNDP and private partners that seeks to mobilise up to $10 billion by 2035.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: The Economy That Remembers: Institutional Amnesia and the Regenerative Correction
Modern capitalism has perfected a hidden discipline: the systematic design of economic systems that forget. What we call “externalities” are not costs that disappear — they are consequences displaced. The regenerative economy, at its core, is not simply greener or more inclusive. It is an effort to build systems that remember.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Botswana Targets Drug Manufacturing in Health Emergency Recovery
Health Minister Stephen Modise, in an interview, said that while medicines are now more widely available, nationwide the focus is on building strong supply chains with locally manufactured drugs to overcome the high cost of importing medication.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: Pesalink and PAPSS Unlock Cross-Border Payments in Local Currencies in Kenya
The partnership enables instant 24/7 cross-border payments from PAPSS participants into banks and mobile money operators within the Pesalink network in Kenya, all settled in local currencies.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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FinDev Canada Proposes $33 Million Investment in BlueOrchard Initiative
BOCAMF is structured as a 12‑year private debt blended‑finance fund designed to channel capital into climate‑focused interventions across low‑ and middle‑income countries.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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REDD+ Can Make Poor Households More Vulnerable
Analysis of two Indonesian projects finds neutral or negative impacts on household income.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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