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Madagascar: $45 Million to Promote Financial Inclusion of Individuals and Small Enterprises
Madagascar Financial Inclusion project will specifically target women and women-owned enterprises, to reduce disparities in access to finance for women. The direct beneficiaries of the project will include teachers, students and taxpayers that will have the option to receive and make government payments through an e-money transaction account.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Tanzania is betting on coding to help close the gender gap in its tech sector
Even nations that have dramatically closed gender gaps in education and labor force participation have struggled to increase women’s participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. For instance, women hold about 26% of computer and mathematical jobs in the US, slightly below the level in 1960. For a country like Tanzania, which has a promising, budding tech industry, solving this problem could be vital to its future.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- gender equality
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The intensifying battle for Africa’s burgeoning tech landscape
The scale and complexity of Africa’s technical landscape sits at the heart of the problem, and connectivity issues are particularly prevalent. Internet users in Africa represent only 10 percent of the total users in the world, despite representing 16 percent of the world population, according to Internet World Stats. And only 31 percent of the total population has access to the internet, which represents a penetration that is well below the rest of the world at 52 percent.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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New climate-smart technologies will boost agriculture and jobs in West Africa
A new programme is being launched to equip farmers in Africa with climate-smart agricultural tools and technologies.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- climate change
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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