NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

How Solar Stores Are Helping to Meet Rural Uganda?s Energy Needs

Attorney Sari Schwartz and Rachel Ishofsky, associate executive director of Jewish Heart for Africa discuss how cell phones and hair trimming in rural Uganda sparked the introduction of mobile solar kiosks. A pilot project, the aim is to see whether these solar stores can be run profitably, thus creating both an independent business and a source of safe, reliable energy. The focus of international development is shifting. Foreign assistance in its traditional form is being called into q...

Source

pv magazine (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Using Technology to Close the Gender Gap in Sierra Leone

Admire Bio has the reassured presence of a successful businesswoman, with an edge that reveals she is still hungry for more. Bio, 28, a single mother living with her parents, set up her first internet cafe in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, only a year ago. She has expanded with two more branches, and plans to go national if she can secure a bank loan. "My biggest motivation is...

Source

Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Why Zimbabwe’s Cool-Sounding Plan to Give Away Millions of CFLs Isn’t a Good Solution

Zimbabwe’s power supply is erratic, to say the least. The country imports nearly half of its power from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it still has to turn off power supplies for up to 10 hours at a time just to keep up with demand. In an effort to curb power consumption, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) recently decided to hand out 5.5 million CFL bulbs at a cos...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Solar Irrigation Solutions in Africa

When you have to hand-deliver water to irrigate your farm, you aren’t going to have the best possible crop yields. If you have to pay for water from a nearby pump, if one exists, you’re not going to be able to get very much if your total budget is less than a dollar a day and your crop yield is still going to be pretty limited. But if you can manage to access the underground water table using a solar-powered pump that does not cost much to run, you can ease the burden of everyda...

Source

Dowser (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

The Women Bringing Solar Power to Sierra Leone

A group of 12 women from villages in Sierra Leone is in the frontline of a battle to bring solar-powered electricity to rural communities. No small feat, given that rural Sierra Leone is not connected to power. The women were all trained at Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, in western ...

Source

Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Business Incubator for Marginalised Youths Debuts

In 10 years from now, 40 million Nigerians will become job seekers, and most of them would be unskilled hands. What do we do with these job seekers? Generation Enterprise (GEN) raised this question last week in Lagos. It is GEN’s mandate to solve this problem. GEN, a model that provides an end-to-end solution to youth poverty and unemployment, brought leaders in Nigeria’s public, private, and social sectors together in Lagos to tackle the related issues of youth unemployment and...

Source

Business Day (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Exploding Malaria With Human-Sized Microwaves

Around the world almost a million people die from malaria each year, and half the planet's population, 3.3 billion people, live at risk of contracting the disease , mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Treatments for malaria, however, have never been a high priority for pharmaceutical companies. Most victims have little or no ability to pay, and profit margins on vaccines are thin. Now, our few lines of defen...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Health Care

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Banking on a Mobile Business

I t sounds like the lead-up to a bad joke: What do a mobile phone and a bank clerk have in common? Certainly the differences are more obvious than any similarities, but the two do share one crucial likeness: they both provide access to financial services. Mobile banking is becoming an increasingly popular service across Africa, thanks to a combination of both simplicity and availability. The ability to access basic financial services, such as deposits and transfer...

Source

Business Today (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa