NextBillion - A WDI Publication

The Sticky Challenge Facing Africa

As the food crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, so do the campaigns asking for support and donations. Some of the money raised goes on the purchase of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), small packets of a sticky, peanut butter-like paste, fortified with minerals and vitamins, that can reverse severe malnutrition within six weeks. Products such as Pl...

Source

The Guardian (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Microfinance Banks to Construct 500 Houses

Microfinance Banks in Lagos, under the auspices of the National Association of Microfinance Banks, Lagos State Chapter, NAMBLAG, have pledged to undertake a micro-housing project that will see them catering for the housing needs of a vast majority of the low income earners in the society. Chairman of the Association, Mr. Olufemi Babajide, in his address to members in the report for the 2010 financial year, said the association plans to build 500 houses for the active poor with flexible ...

Source

Vanguard (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile Banking to Transform Nigeria’s Economy, says GT Bank Boss

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), Mr. Segun Agbaje said Wednesday that the introduction of the mobile money- a mobile payment and remittance services, into the country would bring about positive transformation of payment system in the economy. Agbaje said this at the official launch of the bank’s mobile money product, in partnership with MTN. He explained that the innovation was as a prompt step towards financial...

Source

This Day Live (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Ending Africa’s Hungry Season: How Family Farms Are Driving Development

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, most people are farmers, and for part of the year, they go hungry. It’s called the hungry season. I encountered it when I lived in a farming community in Malawi for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Families in my village subsisted off of the maize and beans that they harvested, but there was only one growing season, and making stocks last an entire year was difficult. Imagine growing all of your family’s food for an entire year using just a hoe,...

Source

GOOD (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

How to Make It in Africa? Unilever Listens to the Consumer

"There is a growing realisation that the future of Africa is based around a consumer rather than mining. This is a consumer that has been under-served and over-charged," said Frank Braeken, Unilever executive vice-president for Africa at the High Growth Markets Summit at the end of September 2011. But Braeken pointed out that consumers in Ghana spend just one fifth ...

Source

How We Made It In Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Beckons as the Next Pot of Gold for the Cellphone Telecoms Industry

Africa’s lag in land-based telecoms infrastructure has propelled the continent directly into the mobile age, opening up unparalleled short-term growth prospects. Sector players have seen growth especially in mobile Internet and banking services, as people use cellphone technology for lack of landlines or cable Internet. "Africa is the last market to emerge. China’s emerged, India’s emerged. So where else outside Africa needs emerging? The growth opportunity is right he...

Source

Taipei Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Chutes, Ladders, and Safety Nets: How Microinsurance Helps African Development

James Abuh-Prah had owned a used electronics shop in a small market in Accra for 17 years before a flood took everything. It was late one night in October, and the torrential rains hadn’t stopped for hours. "By 5 a.m. the water was up to my chest," he says. He had taken out a $2,400 loan from his bank, Opportunity International, to use as capital to buy used televisions, stereos, and other electronics. Now, everything was destroyed. It’s like a game of Chutes and Ladders,"...

Source

GOOD (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Rising

THE shops are stacked six feet high with goods, the streets outside are jammed with customers and salespeople are sweating profusely under the onslaught. But this is not a high street during the Christmas-shopping season in the rich world. It is the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria, every day of the year. Many call it the world’s biggest. Up to 3m people go there daily to buy rice and soap, computers and construction equipment. It is a hub for traders from the Gulf of Guinea, a region b...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa