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AFDB Approves Financing for Nigerian SMEs
The African Development Bank has approved a total of $700 million worth of loan programs to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Nigeria. Of the sum, $500 million will be channeled through Nigeria’s Bank of Industry and will be available for domestic-oriented SMEs in the African country. ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Who Gives A Crap? Sanitation, Energy and Entrepreneurship in Kenya
By Elmira Bayrasli The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a pristine place. Situated alongside Cambridge’s charming Charles River, adorned with manicured lawns, sleek and light buildings designed by I.M. Pei and awesome abstract sculptures b...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Iko-toilet’ Wins Global Recognition
Until recently, public toilets in Nairobi and Kenya’s urban centres were an eyesore, dreaded answers to calls of nature. The dilapidated facilities were a no-go zone for many who preferred walking into hotels or offices for relief. Some private ventures came in to ameliorate the situation by providing clean, convenient facil...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Out of Africa: A Continent of Entrepreneurs
We’re used to seeing Africa as poor and helpless, and it certainly has its problems. However, it’s also a hotbed of entrepreneurship, where phone-fixers, DVD hawkers, clothes sellers and internet start-ups are thriving. MANCHÁN MAGAN visits Mozambique and finds a country more suited to investment than pity IT WAS the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio walks through a bustling African market in the movie Blood Diamond that finally o...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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MIT Start-up Focuses on Sanitation Needs of Poor
Some 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation and a small start-up launched by MIT students is aiming to do its part to help address the global problem. Sanergy provides low-cost sanitation facilities in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, and converts the waste to salable byproducts. "Our goal is to make sanitation hygienic, accessible and affordable for the 8 million people in Kenyan slums," said David Auerbach, a co-founder and MBA candidate at MIT. Sanergy started ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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One In 3 Africans Now Middle Class, Report Finds
One in three Africans is middle class, a rising group of consumers to rival those of China and India, researchers have found (pdf). Record numbers of people in Africa own houses and cars, use mobile phones and the internet and send their children to private schools and foreign universities, according to the African Development ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Economies ’Must Go Global’
By Justine Gerardy (AFP) CAPE TOWN - Africa must accelerate links to global markets and improve competitiveness to sustain the strong growth expected this year, experts at the World Economic Forum on Africa said on Wednesday. African economies weathered the global economic storm in 2008 and have since resumed strong growth -- a positive showing which paradoxically highlighted Africa’s weak presence in global financial markets, said Jennifer Blake, head of WEF’s compe...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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’Drop out of school’: Does That Advice Work in South Africa?
By Osiame Molefe Cape Town, South Africa Like many other black South African parents, my folks were non-negotiable on one thing: that my siblings and I, at the very minimum, go to university and graduate. They worked slavishly, too, to make it happen. I’m sure many other South African parents held and continue to hold the ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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