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Half of Tanzania?s Population on Phone
A research team at the University of Dar es Salaam says half the Tanzanian population is currently hooked to mobile phones, and that it takes just a handset to run a business in the country. Led by Prof Ophelia Mascarenhas of the university, there is no need for offices, visiting cards or huge capital investments. He is joined by Dr. Raphael Mmasi and Dr. Hezron Makundi of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) in his findings. The team however re...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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East Africa Poised to Tap a Reborn South Sudan
NAIROBI/KAMPALA, (Reuters) - East African nations could reap trade and investment opportunities worth billions of dollars to help develop south Sudan if it splits from the north, but they will have to compete with bigger rivals like China to do so. Southerners are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favour of separation in a referendum next week, a vote that follows decades of civil war with the north and, the south says, economic and political m...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Impact Investing in the Poor, the Next Big Thing
Over the next 10 years, investors across the world will not just be preoccupied with financial returns, but will also pay closer attention to the social, environmental and development impacts of their activities, says a report. This will see impact investment, as this trend is known, rake in up to $667 billion in profits over the period and achieve the billing of the newest emerging asset class of the next decade, according to the report prepared by JP Morgan and Rockefeller Foundation....
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Joseph to Spearhead M-Pesa Expansion in Africa
Michael Joseph, the immediate former CEO of Safaricom, has been tapped to spearhead the expansion of M-Pesa to other African countries as part of a plan to have a seamless mobile money transfer service on the continent. M-Pesa is already successful in Kenya, and is now also available in Tanzania, Afghanistan, South Africa, while a pilot service is on in India. But Vodafone is looking at spreading the services to other African countries such as DR Congo, Lesotho, and Mozambique wit...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Award Winning Social Enterprise Uses Bikes to Power Utilities
Every year, Echoing Green selects a handful of social entrepreneurs to participate in a two-year fellowship. Echoing Green fellows receive start-up capital and technical assistance to build their fledgling social enterprises. Perhaps the most interesting Echoing Green fellow this year is 23-year-old Jodie Wu, founder of Global Cycle Solutions. Based in Arusha, Tanzania, Global Cycle Solutions is innovative from both an engineering and entrepreneurial perspective. The company creates dev...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power
As small-scale renewable energy becomes cheaper, more reliable and more efficient, it is providing the first drops of modern power to people who live far from slow-growing electricity grids and fuel pipelines in developing countries. Although dwarfed by the big renewable energy projects that many industrialized countries are embracing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, these tiny systems are playing an epic, transformative role. The ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Interest Rates on Microloans in Rwanda to Drop
Rwandans will soon pay lower interest rates following the launch of the Transparent Pricing Initiative project in the country. The initiative, which is already operational in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, is part of the broader MFTransparency programme aimed at impelling African microfinance institutions to price loans fairly and educate citizens on interest rates. "Rather than attempt to control interest rates, we facilitate transparent pricing in microfinance products so that all ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Poor Communities to Benefit from Poverty Alleviation Project
GWERU - The European Commission and Heifer Netherlands have funded a US$2.3 million poverty alleviation project through the Heifer Project International that is set to benefit 33 000 people in the Midlands province. The project will see cattle farmers in the province receiving heifers as a pass on gift project. In an interview with The Zimbabwean On Thursday at the launch of the project, the Heifer International Zimbabwe Country Director Bongani Ngwenya said his organisation wa...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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