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Mobile Communications Helping Humanitarian Organizations in Tanzania
Tanzania's rapid uptake of mobile phones and massive investment in rural network coverage is helping disaster and humanitarian organisations in the country speedily disseminate and collect information.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Airtel is losing its fight against Safaricom for Kenya’s fast-growing mobile market
The telecom company is struggling to put a dent in Safaricom’s dominance, but they are getting left behind.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- mobile finance
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New $35 million competition will enable greater financial inclusion for smallholder farmers in Africa
The MasterCard Foundation has announced the opening of a US$35 million Scaling Competition under its Fund for Rural Prosperity.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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With a Billion Africans Set to Shop Online, a New Wave of Start-ups Is Looking to Cash In
Africa’s middle class is rising and they have money to spend. About a third of the continent spends between $4 to $20 a day—a group that is expected to grow to 42% by 2060, according to data from the Africa Development Bank (pdf). That’s more than a billion people.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Early Morning Call: How One Entrepreneur Is Taking on the Money Transfer Giants
Telephones have always been a fundamental part of the remittance process, Ahmed Ismail says with a wry laugh; when they ring early in the morning, it tends to be costly.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- remittances
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GE Commits $14.7 Million to Build Healthcare Skills in East Africa
The global health sector, particularly in the developing countries, faces critical workforce shortages. Africa ranks the lowest in the availability of health personnel. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 12 percent of the world’s population and bears 25 percent of the world’s burden of diseases, but has only three percent of the world’s health workforce.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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The Disruptors Are Forcing Change in the Remittance Industry
Remittances to Africa have grown rapidly in recent times, and it forms an integral part of the $500 billion global money transfer market. This is because several African nations rely heavily on money sent home by friends and relatives working abroad. Hundreds of Africansare migrating daily to keep growing the influx. But the biggest gainers in this have for long being a few firms, whose near-monopoly costs the continent about $2 billion annually in remittance fees. However, a new breed of companies are causing much needed disruption in the money transfer market and are putting consumers back in control of their money.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public policy, remittances
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Mobile Money Service a First for Burundi, ‘Just Like an Instant Message’
London-based money transfer services provider WorldRemit has partnered with Zimbabwe-based EcoCash service to launch instant mobile money transfers in Burundi.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa