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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2025: Vote for Your Favorites by Jan. 4
NextBillion’s “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest has been an annual tradition since 2012. As we do each December, we’ve highlighted 12 of our most-read articles from the past year: You can find links to them in this article, or on the homepage below. We invite you to read them and vote for the ones that influenced your thinking the most. You can vote up to once per hour between today (Dec. 19) and 11:59 pm EST on Jan. 4. We thank you for your support and engagement over these past 20 years, and we wish you a happy and prosperous 2026.
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- Energy, Environment, Finance, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications, Transportation
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Africa-Focused Seed Investor Chui Ventures Closes 1st Fund at $17.3. Million, Launches New $60 Million Vehicle
Chui Ventures is an investment company that backs exceptional African startups at the early stage of their growth.
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- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Global Heat Wave Days Jump to 19.3 a Year: Women in Low- and Middle-Income Nations at High Risk
A review conducted by researchers from The George Institute for Global Health and Imperial College London has found that most heat adaptation efforts in LMICs continue to focus on infrastructure and climate mitigation, with limited attention to health outcomes and significant gaps in gender inclusion.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Analysis: A Defining Moment for African Economic Transformation
For the first time, the world’s largest economies gathered on the continent to examine the unfair cost of capital, the inefficiencies that block domestic investment, and the reforms needed to support Africa’s trajectory toward a more prosperous, equitable future.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: IFC Invests in World’s First Digital Gender Bond by Akbank to Empower Women in Türkiye
$100 million investment will expand access to finance for women-owned businesses and increase home ownership for women in Türkiye.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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PREO Launches New Report on Interoperability in Electric Mobility at Africa E-Mobility Week
PREO’s report draws on five years of insights from its early-stage investments in electric mobility enterprises.
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- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: New Facility Launched to Strengthen Water Enterprises and Expand Safe Water Access
The facility is designed to help promising water enterprises grow stronger and reach further.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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When AI Gets It Wrong: Lessons from a Women-Centered Design Experiment Highlight the Need for Inclusive GPTs
In emerging markets, women entrepreneurs continue to face systemic barriers to financial inclusion. And as Koheun Lee at CARE explains, ChatGPT and other AI models sometimes contribute to this exclusion, reinforcing societal biases that limit women’s potential for business growth and long-term financial health. She shares insights from CARE's attempt to build a women-centered design GPT — and proposes some practical steps AI users can take to mitigate bias against women when working with mainstream GPTs.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
