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Viewpoint: Why M-Pesa ‘will never work in South Africa’
In the wake of Vodacom's decision to close down its M-Pesa mobile money service in South Africa at the end of this month, a pioneer of mobile financial services for the mass market has said mobile operators will never be successful in the financial services industry.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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EcoCash removes transaction fees, makes mobile money payments free in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing cash shortages and this has resulted in banks reducing withdrawal limits. Mobile money services like EcoCash have also been affected and some agents have run out of cash for some transactions.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Cameroonian inventor wins prize for handheld tablet bringing medicine to rural areas
Cardio Pad enables heart patients in remote areas to access healthcare without journeying to the cities where most heart specialists work.
Zang -- who won gold at the Africa Prize for the invention -- explains that the tablet comes with "four electrodes, which are attached to the patient's chest to determine whether their heart is functioning normally".- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Meet the ‘flying hospital’ fighting to save the broken hearts of Tanzania’s poor children
More than a million babies worldwide are born every year with a congenital heart defect. Of these, one tenth will not live to see their first birthday. While corrective surgery is normally performed within weeks of the birth, in Tanzania and other developing countries, poverty and a lack of cardiac specialists or facilities mean many go untreated.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- innovation
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African Data Prices Falling, Income Rising
Africa’s mobile Internet market has grown steadily over the last decade and new forecasts show mobile data revenue will double over the five years to 2019—topping $22 billion, according to Quartz. Mobile voice revenue, by comparison, is expected to grow by 10 percent in the same period.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- mobile finance
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Cotton made in Africa funds Tanzania health outpost
A health outpost will be located in the Tanzanian town of Kasoli, which has about 16,000 inhabitants but whose current facility has just three beds for delivering babies, although there are more than 3,000 women of childbearing age in the town. With 52 births per month on average, neither the number of beds not the quality of care is adequate -- with four newborn babies dying every month on average.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Heart monitoring device wins top African prize
A portable heart diagnostic invention has won its developer — Cameroonian Arthur Zang — Africa prize for engineering innovation.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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BETWAY enters Ghana’s market with cashless sports betting
Leading international sports betting outlet BETWAY has entered the Ghanaian market with cashless betting. The web/mobile-based betting system runs on the regular mobile money platform of the various telecom companies in Ghana.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments
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