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Leaping Into the Future: Nigeria’s Rural Microfinance Community Gets Connected Using Stellar and Oradian
In the 1970s, microfinance began to take off as people started extending credit to small businesses and farmers as a way of getting them out of poverty. Microfinance works: the only problem is it's hard to scale; it's time-consuming and expensive to disburse and collect loans for instance. People are not able to transfer money within the country because they can't get normal bank accounts or afford to pay 20% for traditional remittance/money transfers.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Commercial Bank of Africa to Offer Direct Mobile Lending in Uganda
Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) is introducing a Mobile Micro Savings and Loans product in Uganda allowing customers to borrow money via their phones.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Closing Ugandas Contraception Gap With Market Development for IUCDs
Despite much progress in increasing access to modern contraceptive methods, in Uganda, the unmet need for voluntary family planning is still a high 34%. Barriers including limited choice, availability and knowledge have led to gaps in access and affordability for the girls and women who want contraceptive options. This week at the International Conference of Family Planning, PSI’s Uganda network member PACE presented multiple presentations and posters offering insight into how it is working to build the market for long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods using innovative private-sector and total market approaches to meet the need.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Wi-Fi Access Can Improve Health Care in Uganda
In an effort to boost Wi-Fi access in the city of Kampala, Uganda, Google began laying down thousands of kilometers of fiber cables in 2013 as a pilot project.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Drones Are The Future Of Women’s Health In Rural Africa
Project Last Mile has for months been successfully flying birth control, condoms and other medical supplies to rural areas of Ghana on 5-foot-wide drones.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Merck launches equity-free e-health accelerator in Nairobi
Global science and technology firm Merck has launched its equity-free e-health accelerator programme in Nairobi, Kenya, aimed at fostering the growth of high potential, early-stage e-health startups.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: 3 Ingredients to Ensure Health and Well-Being for All in Emerging Economies
As part of society, all of us — including companies — have an obligation to contribute to the positive state of the world. There is great opportunity in aligning business objectives with societal challenges and to create business solutions that generate both financial as well as lasting social impact. For example, Sustainable Development Goal 3, achieving healthy lives for all, is a major global challenge that needs to be addressed, and even more so in emerging economies where access to quality, affordable health care is not a given. But this challenge is not insurmountable.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- SDGs
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Report: Tanzania, other developing countries fail to gain from digital wealth
A new World Bank report says while developed economies have immensely benefited from digital technologies, Tanzania and many other developing countries have not.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- employment, mobile finance
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