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A Roadmap to Modern Energy in Rural Africa: How Minigrids Are Poised to Power the Region’s Economic Growth
Universal electrification is the key to unlocking sub-Saharan Africa's vast potential. But according to Brad Mattson at Husk Power Systems, despite the growing consensus that solar minigrids are the key to providing modern electricity in rural Africa, scale remains elusive in the continent's minigrid industry. In the aftermath of Husk's recent announcement that it has become the first rural minigrid developer to achieve profitability, Mattson explores the roadmap he and his fellow Husk executives have created, which defines a clear pathway to profitability and scale for the industry.
- Categories
- Energy
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South Africa to Support Entrepreneurs With US $77 Million+ This Year
To improve the sector and foster its growth, the government plans to implement new measures.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Colombia Unveils Four-Year Development Plan Worth Nearly $250 Billion
The development plan aims to cut the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty to single digits.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- Latin America
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Press Release: DFC CEO Travels to Kyiv in Show of Unwavering Support and Makes Several Announcements to Catalyze $1 Billion in Private Sector Engagement
This week, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Chief Executive Officer Scott Nathan traveled to Ukraine to deepen engagement with the local business community and meet with government ministers.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Six Business Plan Pitfalls to Avoid When Approaching Funders: Lessons from Healthcare Enterprises in Emerging Markets
Having a good business plan is a key part of building credibility with funders. But despite its importance to an enterprise’s success, many entrepreneurs in emerging markets struggle to develop a strong business plan that instills confidence among potential funders. Paul Clyde and Ioan Cleaton-Jones at the William Davidson Institute discuss six common business plan mistakes that can undermine an entrepreneur's prospects with funders, based on their work supporting the development of business plans for hundreds of healthcare enterprises in various emerging markets.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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African Mobile Game Publisher Carry1st Raises $27 Million in Funding Round Led by Bitkraft Ventures
The company aims to enhance monetization in the region through Pay1st, its embedded payments solution and online marketplace for virtual goods.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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We Asked Small Business Owners How Digitalization is Impacting Their Businesses: Here’s How They Responded
Digitalization has become the go-to strategy for improving the performance of Latin America’s micro and small enterprises (MSEs). But according to Daryl Collins and Maria Pia Torres at Decodis, we know little about how MSE owners themselves experience these changes. They share insights from Decodis' surveys of 114 mostly women-led MSEs in Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which highlight how digital solutions have become embedded in these businesses – and where business owners see the most value in digitalization.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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Just Useful… Or Truly Catalytic? How Entrepreneurs Really View Catalytic Capital — And What Impact Investors Can Do About It
Much of the attention in the impact finance sector tends to go to the stewards of capital — investors, foundations and other funders — most of whom firmly believe that catalytic capital is the type of finance that entrepreneurs value most. But as Bjoern Struewer at Roots of Impact and Jed Emerson at Tiedemann point out, it's unclear if investors' assumptions about the value of catalytic capital align with entrepreneurs’ actual opinions about it. They discuss new research that explores what entrepreneurs really value in this type of financing — and how these structures might be improved.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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