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European Investment Bank Lends Ecobank Group $113 Million for SMEs in Africa, With Emphases on Women, Adjusting to COVID-19
The purpose is to help develop the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, with a particular emphasis on the businesses that have been “most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Development Bank Approves USD $170 Million for Investment in Nigeria’s Digital, Creative Start-Ups
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has approved a loan of US$170 million to finance a digital and creative enterprises program in Nigeria.
- Categories
- Education, Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Vote for NextBillion’s Most Influential Article of 2021
As an open forum for emerging markets business, NextBillion publishes around 150 original, guest-written articles per year, covering enterprises, innovations, challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors and geographies. Each December we select the 12 most-read articles of the past year to include in our "Most Influential Article of the Year" contest. We invite you to vote for the article that impacted you the most in 2021. You can vote up to one time per hour during the two-week voting period, which runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2.
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Viewpoint: Dump Diamonds for Digital? Botswana Bets on Tech
Phatsima has also built an organisation that trains thousands of young girls in robotics, coding and entrepreneurship programmes.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Medical Credit Fund Raises €32.5 Million To Support Health Entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Others in Sub-Saharan Africa
This round of funding will help the Fund increase its presence and support for healthcare professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on primary healthcare services.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Accelerating Digital Transformation: Why Technology is the Key to Eliminating the MSME Finance Gap in Emerging Markets
According to the IFC, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets face a finance gap of $5.2 trillion every year. Since MSMEs are responsible for 70% of job opportunities in these countries, this gap must be addressed. According to Brian Pallas at Opportunity Network, that’s where digital technologies can offer a solution. He explores how emerging innovations offer alternative, tech-enabled means of financing for MSMEs, and how business leaders and policymakers can support these enterprises' digital transformation.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Technology
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PanAfrican Capital Holdings Sets up the Catalyst Project To Promote African Entrepreneurship
PanAfrican Capital Holdings ‘PAC Holdings’ has set up a venture capital project, to be known as The Catalyst to identify and invest in growth to product-expansion stage companies.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Scale Is Overrated: Why the ‘Unicorn Industrial Complex’ is Holding Back Social Enterprise and Emerging Markets Business
Social enterprises and small and growing businesses (SGBs) are the focus of a lot of discussion and excitement in the development sector, as seen in recent SGB coverage on NextBillion and other publications. But Jack Foreman at Foresee Advisors argues that this discussion ignores the needs – and essential natures – of the vast majority of these businesses, particularly in emerging markets. He explains why the focus on scale – and investors' search for the next potential "unicorn" startup – overlook the crucial importance of SMEs that are content to remain small or medium-sized.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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