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Why the Future is African – And Why SMEs Should Lead the Way
It’s conventional wisdom that small and medium enterprises are key to economic growth in emerging markets. This is particularly true in Africa, where local SMEs dominate the business landscape, and a fast-growing young population needs the services, jobs and economic growth they provide. But as Trevor Hambayi at Development Finance Associates explains, these enterprises face several unique challenges – starting with a lack of finance. He explores the problem, and some solutions that could help unlock the SME sector’s potential.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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China Wants to Boost Loans to Small Businesses. Tech Companies May Be the Answer
China's push to encourage lending to smaller companies has created a business opportunity for large financial technology companies.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Immigrants Create Jobs – Small Loans Can Help: New Research on the Impact of Supporting Underserved Entrepreneurs
Did you know that immigrants and their children have helped found 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S. (currently worth $3.8 trillion)? That statistic highlights a fact that’s being lost in the immigration debate: Recent immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, who create jobs and economic growth for themselves, their families and their communities. Opportunity Fund’s vice president, Gwendy Brown, explores new research showing how small loans can help immigrants and other underserved entrepreneurs build their businesses and maximize their impact.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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The Definition of Insanity: Why Repeating the Same Approach to Enterprise Support is Failing Africa’s SMEs
It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So in a region where 84 percent of SMEs struggle to access capital, why do investors keep recycling the same failed approaches when financing African enterprises? Mercy Mangeni and Joshua Murima at Intellecap discuss what investors and entrepreneurs have done wrong – and explore some innovative ways their organization is working to make it right.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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Trust, Not Peer Pressure: Adapting the Global Microfinance Model for the U.S.
After years of working with global MFIs at Whole Foods’ Whole Planet Foundation, Steve Wanta saw that the group lending model that helped microentrepreneurs abroad could also work for Hispanic female entrepreneurs in Texas. But he also realized that the traditional microfinance model could function better with a few twists. In this Q&A with NextBillion, Wanta discusses the lessons he's learned leading the nonprofit JUST, which is adapting the microfinance model for the U.S. market.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Beyond Inclusion: How Mission-Based Small Business Lenders are Evolving Their Definition of Impact
While microfinance institutions have grown rapidly around the globe, so too has economic inequality in developed countries. More than two decades ago, Accion in the U.S. and Opportunity Fund responded by adapting their microlending model from low-income markets to the United States. Gina Harman and Luz Urrutia, the respective CEOs of those two organizations, share new research on small loans have impacted revenues and profits for borrowing entrepreneurs, most of whom lacked the financing and resources they needed to start or grow their businesses.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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The ‘Start Small, Stay Small’ Dilemma: How Nonprofit/Private Partnerships Can Boost Women-Owned Businesses
Women-owned businesses tend to start small and stay small, in part due to challenges accessing credit. They're also more likely to be discouraged from applying for financing for fear of being declined. Gina Harman, CEO of Accion's U.S. Network, and Andrea Jung, CEO of Grameen America, explain how their organizations are serving these entrepreneurs – and highlight some important ways this work can be expanded.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Closing the Gap: Identifying Key Challenges for the Missing Middle SMEs in Francophone West Africa
Many small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries fall into the “missing middle”: They're too big for microfinance and too small or risky for traditional finance. To better understand this sector and how to support it, the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) commissioned studies on the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo. WDI's Ekta Jhaveri discusses the research with Julia Kho, knowledge manager at TripleJump, an investment management and advisory services firm that manages DGGF’s Investment Funds Local SMEs effort.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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