NextBillion - A WDI Publication

MTN eyes 3G, mobile banking launch in Nigeria

Abstract: Cellular giant MTM expects to apply for a liscence to provide mobile banking services in Nigeria....

Source

Reuters South Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Grameen Shakti, Rahimafrooz win world’s leading green energy award

Abstract: The Ashden Awards recognized four "pioneering projects from Bangladesh, India, Mexico and Tanzania," which brought electricity to rural areas through green power....

Source

Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa: Good Business

Excerpt: LAST week’s launch of the South African Social Investment Exchange (Sasix) serves to reinforce the idea that local business is concerned about more than just its own profits. The social investment exchange works very much like a stock exchange, except that in this instance companies place their money in a particular project, and receive a social return -- the upliftment and development of a worthy cause -- as opposed to a monetary return. The id...

Source

AllAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

MTN takes internet to poor

Excerpt: An initiative to provide convenient internet connectivity as well as access to a wealth of education information via a bespoke online portal to some of the country’s poorest communities was launched on Wednesday by mobile services operator MTN....

Source

Myadsl.co.za (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

IFC Supports Madagascar?s SME Sector with First-of-Its-Kind Investment

Antananarivo, Madagascar / Washington, D.C., June 13, 2006?The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, will provide joint risk-sharing with the Republic of Madagascar and two local banks to make loans available to owners of small and medium enterprises. This is the first joint investment under the International Development Association/IFC Pilot Program for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa. Henri Rabarijohn, IFC?s Country...

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria: Small Businesses and Economic Growth

Abstract: Anas A. Galadima explores the challenge of small business devevlopment in Nigeria....

Source

AllAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Rural Kenyan women on vanguard of African ’solar revolution’

Abstract: A growing number of Kenyan women are part of a business movement to sell solar panel cookers in the region....

Source

AFP via Yahoo (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

New Mobile Phone Program to Bring Economic Lifeline to Rural Rwanda

(CSRwire) Washington, DC, June 14, 2006 ? With the nearest telephone sometimes six miles away, a mobile phone is more than just a means of communication for rural communities in Rwanda; it is an economic lifeline. To help spur greater telecommunications access for villagers, Grameen Foundation, a global non-profit organization that combines microfinance with new technologies to empower the world?s poorest people, and mobile network operator, MTN Rwanda, are launching an innovative new venture: V...

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa