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Missed Calls = Missed Opportunities: How Starlogik is Converting a Mobile Billing Loophole into an Inclusive Innovation
The mobile telephony industry has done a remarkable job reaching poorer people in developing countries. But as Ignacio Mas at the Digital Frontiers Institute points out, this success has been shaped by customer ingenuity too – for instance, through the common practice of reallocating call charges by requesting call-backs via missed calls. He explores how Starlogik has formalized this billing loophole to create a mutually beneficial new feature.
- Categories
- Technology
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COVID-19 Has Stalled UN’s Goals to Reduce Global Hunger, Poverty and Climate Change
Crucial global goals to reduce hunger and poverty and curb climate change have gone backwards or stalled, the United Nations Secretary-General warns in a new report, as the Covid-19 outbreak moves from being a health crisis to becoming the “worst human and economic crisis of our lifetimes”.
The number of people suffering hunger has increased, climate change is occurring faster than predicted, and inequality is increasing within and among countries, António Guterres said in his Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals or SDG 2020 report.- Categories
- Coronavirus, Environment, Finance, Health Care
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Can COVID-19 Catalyze Vietnam’s Digital Transformation?
Many of Vietnam’s swift and effective public health responses have been enabled by information technology.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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GSMA Report: Big Gender Gap in Mobile Internet Access
The study finds that the mobile internet gender gap has narrowed and 54 per cent of women in low- and middle-income countries now use mobile internet, up from 44 per cent in 2017. However, the underlying gender gap in mobile ownership remains largely unchanged
- Categories
- Technology
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The Latest Marker of Chinese Interest in African Fintech Is a $120 Million Funding Round for OPay
Notably, OPay’s round follows on the heels of another major funding round by Chinese investors in an African-focused fintech startup after PalmPay raised $40 million in a seed round from Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings, the top selling phone maker in Africa.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Southeast Asia’s Booming Internet Economy to Boost Fintech Growth
In the e-Conomy SEA Report 2019, released earlier this month, the companies say that the region’s Internet economy has hit a new milestone, reaching US$100 billion for the first time this year, corresponding to a 39% increase from 2018. The sector is on track to hit US$300 billion in 2025, the report says.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Malawi Scraps 1% Withholding Tax on Mobile-Money Transactions
The mobile tax drew criticism from Telekom Networks Malawi Plc, the country’s biggest phone operator.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Fighting TB With Phone Calls: A Project That Reminded Patients to Take Their Medicine
The 99DOTS project was withdrawn from hospitals after only two years, in a move that forced patients to revert to the previous method, which was largely considered inconvenient and unreliable.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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