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Press Release: Fasanara and IFC Launch New Strategy to Expand Access to Finance for MSMEs in Emerging Markets
The initiative will channel more affordable, flexible financing to MSMEs by supporting fintech lenders that serve these businesses.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
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Creating a Local Means of Exchange for African Entrepreneurs: How a Blockchain-Based Community Currency Gained Traction in Tanzania
In African communities, the lack of disposable income often hinders economic growth, and many local entrepreneurs are excluded from centralized, formal finance. Malik El Bay at the Encointer Association and Alinagwe Mwaselela at Jukumu NGO explore how their organizations are addressing this issue by leveraging blockchain technology to enable community members in Dar es Salaam to independently create and manage their own local cryptocurrency. They explain how this community currency model can be leveraged to support economic growth and entrepreneurship across Africa and other emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Leveraging the Currency of Trust: How Social Commerce Data Can Inform Risk Management and Bring Formal Finance to Women-Led MSMEs
Across emerging markets, millions of women entrepreneurs operate in trust-based economies invisible to formal credit systems. As Nabilla Prita Fiandini and Monica Christy at MicroSave Consulting (MSC) explain, these businesses rely on their social reputations and customer relationships to survive, and often use platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to market their products. They share insights from a recent MSC report based on surveys and interviews with hundreds of social sellers across Indonesia, exploring how data from these entrepreneurs' social commerce activity can be used to boost their access to formal finance.
- Categories
- Finance
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African Development Bank and Djibouti Sign Agreements for $80 Million to Strengthen Infrastructure and Food Security
The program aims to improve food security, enhance climate resilience, and support sustainable livelihoods through climate‑smart agriculture, more robust pastoral and agro‑pastoral systems, and economic opportunities for women and youth.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2025: Announcing the Winners of Our Annual Contest
We've counted the votes in NextBillion’s “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest, an annual tradition since 2012. The three winners are listed in this article. Congratulations to these guest writers, and to the other contestants in the contest, whose insights have clearly resonated with our readers this past year. And thank you to everyone who voted — and everyone who read and wrote for NextBillion in 2025. Best wishes for the new year!
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
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Five35 Ventures Secures Anchor Investment from Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund
The MEDA-backed anchor capital is expected to bolster Five35’s capacity to deepen its reach across East, West and Southern Africa, support more female entrepreneurs, and bridge critical financing gaps between pre-seed and scale stages.
- Categories
- Investing
- 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
$100 million investment will expand access to finance for women-owned businesses and increase home ownership for women in Türkiye.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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IFC Invests in EcoEnterprises Partners IV to Boost Job Creation and Support SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean
IFC will invest US$ 10 million in the new fund, which will support businesses, the majority of them SMEs, that enhance biodiversity, promote climate resilience, and create socio-economic opportunities for rural communities.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Latin America
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