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New $35 million competition will enable greater financial inclusion for smallholder farmers in Africa
The MasterCard Foundation has announced the opening of a US$35 million Scaling Competition under its Fund for Rural Prosperity.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Key to Fighting Poverty in Africa: Could unlocking smallholder finance solve both the continent’s food and employment challenges?
Small and mid-sized agribusinesses are a vital link in Africa’s local and regional agriculture markets. They're also key to building an inclusive African economy able to absorb a workforce that’s set to double in size over the next 25 years, and to feeding a continent that is hungrier now than ever. There’s only one problem: Commercial banks won’t lend to them.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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A Loan and a Light: One Acre Fund, in partnership with GreenLight Planet, aiming for 100K solar lamps in Kenya this year
In 2011, One Acre Fund began offering cost-saving solar lamps made by Greenlight Planet as an optional add-on to our loan package. In 2014, One Acre Fund delivered 72,900 lamps to farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. By the end of 2015, we expect to have delivered over 100,000 more.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
- Tags
- smallholder farmers, solar
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PRESS RELEASE: Root Capital Announces New $15 Million Lending Facility to Finance African Agricultural Enterprises
The company will finance agricultural enterprises throughout sub-Saharan Africa to enhance local food security and stimulate inclusive economic growth in the region.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Vodafone expands Farmers Club to 4 new markets
Vodafone announced that it is launching its Farmers’ Club initiative - which offers a range of mobile services to help farmers in Turkey boost productivity - in India, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Twitter Top 10 – 5/10/15
It’s Mother’s Day in the U.S., and we’ve put together a selection of tweets that anyone’s mother would love (assuming she’s involved in social enterprise or global development). This week’s tweets include case studies for impact investors, disturbing development’s on India’s financial inclusion front, and our usual array of resources and insights (along with some interesting gift ideas for mom.)
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
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The Art of Saving – Look to the Giraffe, the Ant and the Zebra: A parable informs financial inclusion training in Ethiopia
My Amharic skills are basic at best, but I have managed to learn the names of a few animals, including “gundan,” which means ant. In the middle of a recent savings and credit training session we conducted with farmers in northern Ethiopia, one trainer used the word "gundan." "What does an ant have to do with savings?" I asked.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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GM Giants VS Seed Saviors: Food security, contested commercial interests and a host of hot button issues are germinating
Genetically modified seeds have been hailed as the key to ending global hunger, reducing pesticide use and transforming underproductive agriculture. But in the developing world, where those benefits are critically needed, smallholder farmers are also losing their livelihoods to huge industrial farms that outcompete them in the global marketplace. Who wins?
- Categories
- Agriculture
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