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Mastercard, M-Kopa enter pilot pay-as-you-go solar partnership in Africa
M-Kopa Solar makes solar home systems affordable to low-income off-grid households on a pay-as-you-go installment plan. Its customers get power on daily mobile money payment plans and the cost is lower than that of kerosene fuel.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Report: Africa’s mobile money operators lean towards regional interoperability
Although mobile money interoperability inside most African markets is staggered, mobile money platforms in East, West and Central Africa have opened up cross border mobile money transfers.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Uganda telecoms, government fight over Shs44 trillion mobile money industry
While Uganda has multiple telecom companies, the fight to defend business secrecy appears to have been left to the two telecom giants -- MTN Uganda, which says it controls 55% of the telecom market share or about 11.2 million subscribers, and its main challenger; Airtel Uganda.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kenya won’t force a spin-off of the world’s leading mobile money service after all
Almost exactly a year ago, a report from an independent consultant to Kenya’s telecoms regulator, sparked uproar and panic. It recommended the government look into breaking up the dominant mobile operator Safaricom by spinning off the even more dominant mobile money service, M-Pesa.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Zimbabwe is pushing for mobile money interoperability as its cash problems linger
The idea of interoperability in simple terms is to enable a mobile money customer on one network’s proprietary system to send or receive money from another customer on a different network. Regulators typically want this to help boost competition, drive financial inclusion and encourage consumer usage. Network operators are less keen due to the short to medium costs as well as the fact it it reduces the need for customers to own multiple phone services to move money around.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From refugee to royalty: Sierra Leone designer champions ethical fashion
The Commonwealth Fashion Exchange, spearheaded by Livia Firth who co-founded sustainability brand consultancy Eco-Age, connects designers and artisans from Britain and many of its former colonies to showcase and champion sustainable fashion.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Startup venture funding jumped more than 50% in Africa last year to a record high
Across sectors, financial inclusion accounted for 45% of total investment—more than any other sector—with $253 million raised. Partech’s report categorizes off-grid tech, fintech and insurance tech startups under financial inclusion.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- startups, venture capital
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2017 not rosy for mobile cash in Kenya
“Months of political uncertainty affected economic activity. Many sectors did less business than usual which translated into decelerated growth in payment channels in general,” said Mr Stephen Nduati, former head of national payment systems at the CBK, who now works as an independent consultant on mobile money in Kenya.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa