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Under-Skilled and Outdated: Why India Could Lose Out on Nearly $1 Trillion in GDP if it Fails to Upskill its SMEs
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for around $700 billion – roughly 27% – of India’s $2.6 trillion gross domestic product. But impressive as those numbers sound, Samir Sathe at Wadhwani Foundation points out that they're nowhere near the 40% of GDP that policymakers hope SMEs will generate in the coming years. He explains why India could lose out on around $0.75 trillion in SME contributions to GDP by 2027 if it fails to prioritize and fund skill development efforts, and discusses what the public and private sectors can do to train entrepreneurs more effectively.
- Categories
- Education, Entrepreneurship
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Fintech is Not Enough: Why Startup Investments in Africa Must Diversify Across Sectors
Africa is often considered one of the world's largest untapped venture markets, and this potential has fueled interest in the region's tech startups. But as Elo Umeh of Terragon Group explains, though investments have been increasing, they have typically focused only on certain sectors, like fintech and off-grid tech. He explores the value in diversifying these investments across other growing industries, including edtech, agritech and martech, and urges founders and investors to extend their resources to build a robust and complementary technology ecosystem on the continent.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Press Release: G7 Development Finance Institutions and Multilateral Partners to Invest over $80 Billion into African Businesses over the Next Five Years
The G7 DFIs, the IFC, the private sector arm of the African Development Bank, EBRD, and the EIB today announced that they were committed to investing $80 billion in the private sector over the next five years to support sustainable economic recovery and growth in Africa.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ensuring That Women’s Financial Access Is Not Another Casualty of COVID-19: The Value of Agent Banking
As COVID-19 continues to ravage global economies, the existing gender-poverty gap is set to widen: UN Women projects that for every 100 men aged 25-34 in extreme poverty due to the pandemic, 118 women of the same age will be living in extreme poverty this year. Peris Mburu at FSD Africa explores why agent banking is a promising solution to this growing challenge – and how its benefits can extend beyond access to finance.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Data in Real Time: How Digitalisation is Transforming Financial Policies in Africa
For the past year, Cenfri and Finmark Trust have been partnering with NextBillion to share insights from their Insight2Impact (i2i) initiative, a five-year program that has sought to improve financial inclusion and related public policies through the smarter use of data. As the Openi2i Series concludes, i2i lead Hennie Bester takes a look back at the program and the learnings it has generated. In this interview, he explores how digitalisation and data are transforming the policy landscape in Africa and beyond.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Central Bank of Nigeria Disburses N374 Billion (USD 983 Million ) To Smallholder Farmers
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday said it has funded smallholder farmers (SHFs) under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) to the tune of N374 billion across the cassava, maize, cotton and rice value chain from 2016 to date.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Here Are 4 Technology Trends From Emerging Economies
In emerging economies, the promise of these technologies shines particularly bright.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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COVID-19 Hits East African Agri Value Chains
With increased global food, financial and health crises plaguing the world, about 1.3 billion people are not able to access sufficient or nutritious food, and close to a billion people suffer from chronic hunger.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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