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Prudential Financial and LeapFrog Investments Launch a Partnership in Africa
Prudential Financial and LeapFrog Investments announced the launch of a $350 million investment partnership to access high-growth markets in Africa. Managed by LeapFrog, the new investment vehicle will target investments in life insurance companies in leading economies on the continent, including Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, to be made over a three- to five-year period.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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East African Company Moving From Selling Only Solar Energy to ‘Everything’
For the last four years Kenya-based consumer finance company M-KOPA has enabled 300,000 low-income earners in East Africa to acquire home solar energy systems using its pay-as-you-go model.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Mobile Money Fraud Hits Rural Kenya Residents Hard
Mobile money has made lives easier for most people in Africa, but this has not come cheap for the users with con tricksters forever devising means and ways of stealing the money. In Kenya, for example, con men are applying tricks that are more advanced than service providers and users.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Acumen Acquire SolarAid’s Off Grid Energy Research and Impact Division
Acumen, the global social impact organization, announced today its acquisition of the award-winning Research and Impact division of SolarAid, the international nonprofit and leading impact practitioner in the solar energy sector. In acquiring SolarAid’s research arm, Acumen builds on its decade of investing in off-grid energy, further deepening its understanding of the energy needs of low-income populations while measuring the social impact of newly electrified individuals and households. Acumen began investing in off-grid energy solutions in 2007 and today has the largest portfolio of companies committed to serving the poor.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Will Technical Illiteracy Mar Rwanda’s Ambitious Financial Inclusion Target?
As part of its goal to have 100 percent of adults formally financially included and to build a robust payments system that facilitates a cashless economy by 2020, Rwanda is targeting 80 percent financial inclusion by 2017 through the aid of the Financial Sector Development Programme II.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Motsoaledi Accused of Trying to Control Private Health Prices
The Competition Commission’s private healthcare market inquiry is a “ruse” set in place by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi as a “justification to control prices” in the sector to facilitate the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, the director of the Free Market Foundation, Jasson Urbach, said on Tuesday.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Vaccines Alliance Signs $5 Million Advance Deal for Merck’s Ebola Shot
The Gavi global alliance for vaccines and immunization group signed a $5 million advance purchase commitment on Wednesday to buy a vaccine being developed by Merck to protect against future outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Report: Nigerian President Planning to Offer Government Microloans to 1 Million Artisans, Market Women
More details are emerging about the social protection programmes of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, including a scheme to grant soft loans to about one million artisans and market women in the proposed 2016 budget.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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