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Press Release: World Bank Group Launches Initiative to Help Local Financial Institutions Expand Digital Payments in Emerging Markets
". . . the initiative is expected to increase competition and improve the quality and accessibility of payment services."
- Region
- Global
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Africa Ecosystem Catalysts Facility Expands into Nigeria with USD 450K in First Investments
Backing Trade Lenda and AirSmat, Nigerian startups advancing financial inclusion and climate-smart agriculture through fit-for-purpose capital.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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78% of South African SMBs Encountered Cybersecurity Incidents Over the Past Year, Kaspersky Research Shows
Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, surveyed IT security specialists across SMBs and enterprises in 18 countries* to provide insights into the most critical risks facing businesses today.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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CLIC Report: Landscape of Technical Assistance to Agri-SMEs
Via CLIC, "This report maps over 200 organizations providing technical assistance to agri-SMEs across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Global
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Hijau Raises $10 Million to Scale Distributed Solar Projects Across Indonesia
Founded in 2017, Hijau develops rooftop solar projects mainly for commercial and industrial customers. The company follows a zero-capital-expenditure model, allowing businesses to install and use solar systems without making large upfront investments in equipment.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Nairobi Targets Creators With New Fees as County Expands Digital Tax Net
The sharpest divide is between local and external filmmakers, with foreign productions paying more than six times what local producers pay for a single shoot.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Vox, Frogfoot Raise $900 Million to Expand Broadband to 360,000 South African Homes Yearly
According to a Bloomberg report on Monday, the companies, which are units of the Johannesburg-based Vivica Group, raised R8.4 billion in equity funding and R6 billion in debt.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Missing Asset Class: How Aggregated MSMEs Could Unlock the Next Wave of Impact Investing Deal Flow
Despite years of emphasizing the need to reach underserved businesses, the impact investing sector is increasingly focusing on lower-risk opportunities. According to Adanna Chukwuma at CARE, mature companies have drawn the largest increases in impact assets over the past six years, while funding to seed-stage enterprises has contracted — despite multiple financial instruments designed to serve the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in this segment. As she explains, this trend excludes a vast band of businesses with real revenue, real demand and real growth potential: aggregated MSMEs, i.e., individual enterprises that have joined together to contract and borrow as one. She explores the investment opportunity in these MSMEs, and calls for the creation of a new asset class around them, explaining how this could unlock the flow of impact capital to enterprises that remain systemically overlooked.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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