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Vision and Discipline: How to Innovate for Increased Financial Inclusion
Globally, some two billion working-age adults in emerging markets are excluded from the type of financial intermediation that we take for granted in the developed world: a transaction account to send and receive money; the ability to save for a rainy day; access to credit if needed for bigger, spiky outlays; insurance to help mitigate the financial consequences of an unfortunate event.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Smile, The Pan-African Wireless ISP, Has Raised $365 Million to Expand Its Network
Three years after launching Africa’s first 4G LTE services in Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria, Smile Telecoms has raised $365 million.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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German Startup Franchises Biogas Bag Business in Africa
German social enterprise B-Energy has developed portable “digester” bags that produce methane gas out of food waste or animal droppings, which can help low-income entrepreneurs in the global South make a living through a franchise model, BBC Newsreports.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy
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In South Africa’s Poor Townships, Social Entrepreneurs Are Creating a Food Delivery Service
People who live a long way from grocery stores pay more for food because they have to travel there and back, which costs money, and they waste more time doing it. That's why two social entrepreneurs from Cape Town, South Africa, have come up with Lakheni, a group buying club that aggregates orders, with local daycare centers serving as a base.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Zambian capital can’t quench thirst of its booming population
Dorothy Zulu survives on 10 kwacha ($1) a day and, like the majority of Ngombe's 120,000 residents, spends up to a third of it on water. "If you don't have money here you can't drink water," Zulu told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Orange Launches Africa’s First Mobile Crowdfunding Platform
Mobile operator Orange, which has operations in 16 African countries, has partnered with French charity crowdfunding platform HelloAsso to launch what it says is Africa's first mobile crowdfunding platform.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- crowdfunding
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Sowing Self-Sufficiency in Africa With Anacostia-Based ‘Hello Tractor’
For years he had two feet planted firmly on the ground as a corporate investment banker. Now, with a little start-up money, Jehiel Oliver runs a small Anacostia-based company, with a plan to solve a big agriculture problem half a world away.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance
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Ebola’s ‘magic pill’ might actually be a machine
Early intervention with medical devices focused on “simple things” could be better than drugs at halting infectious disease outbreaks.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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