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Slideshow: Inzozi Nziza, a Social Enterprise, Creates a Market for Ice Cream in Rwanda
It’s an unlikely place for an ice cream shop, and an even more unlikely batch of people to be running it. Inzozi Nziza, or "Sweet Dreams" in Kinyarwanda, is Rwanda’s first and only local ice cream shop. Located in the small university town of Butare, it celebrated its one year anniversary this week. While its struggles have been great, from importing a soft-serve ice cream machine into this tiny landlocked country where only one person knows (kind-of) how to fix it,&...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Energy is Central to Development
Energy , it seems, is the Cinderella of development policy. Listen to governments, aid agencies and the big foundations, and the priorities have been malaria, maternal mortality, vaccinations, HIV - health has hoovered up attention and aid dollars in the last decade. Education has come a close second. Now attention is slowly moving to include agriculture and food security, but the rhetoric is ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Africa’s Women Mean Business ? But They Need Finance
Inclusion was the big theme of the African Development Bank annual meeting in Lisbon last week, an acknowledgement that impressive economic growth numbers don’t tell the whole story. As the president of the AfDB, Donald Kaberuka, acknowledged at the start of proceedings, the bank had got it wrong in Tunisia and Egypt - although as one bank official pointed out, good things had been accomplished in Tunisia by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Counterintuitive Innovation that Works: Five Takeways from Stima Systems at SOCAP
"We don’t sell our products, we don’t market them, and we don’t take them to our clients" - CEO Konrad App of micro-leasing solar energy company Stima Systems . Showcasing at the SOCAP/Europe conference last week, members of the Stima team, Konrad App, Matt Jervis, Homayoon Shahinfar and James Kimisoi, caught my attention with their counterintuitive yet su...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Garbage Disposal Innovation Wins Kenyan Firm Sh4.2 Million Award
A local garbage disposal concept has won the Dell Social Innovation Award for 2011, the latest conquest by a Kenyan firm in the world of innovations with high social impact. TakaTaka Solutions, a social enterprise that collects and recycles waste in Nairobi, won the Sh4.2 million top prize in the global competition for its waste management solution, and will use the money to bankroll its recycling programme. "The team exemplifies ingenuity, passion and entrepreneurial spirit. The ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Safaricom ? 56% Growth in M-PESA Revenue
Last week, Safaricom announced its annual results [1] . It has confirmed an increased turnover (+12.9% to Ksh. 94.83bn). However, after several years of sustained growth, Safaricom experienced a 12.4% drop in profits before tax due to increased competition. Nevertheless, a more interesting figure to highlight is the 56% growth in M-PESA revenue for the year 2011. With almost 14 mil...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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AFDB Approves Financing for Nigerian SMEs
The African Development Bank has approved a total of $700 million worth of loan programs to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Nigeria. Of the sum, $500 million will be channeled through Nigeria’s Bank of Industry and will be available for domestic-oriented SMEs in the African country. ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Who Gives A Crap? Sanitation, Energy and Entrepreneurship in Kenya
By Elmira Bayrasli The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a pristine place. Situated alongside Cambridge’s charming Charles River, adorned with manicured lawns, sleek and light buildings designed by I.M. Pei and awesome abstract sculptures b...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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