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

Nigeria: Small Businesses and Economic Growth

Abstract: Anas A. Galadima explores the challenge of small business devevlopment in Nigeria....

Source

AllAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Rural Kenyan women on vanguard of African ’solar revolution’

Abstract: A growing number of Kenyan women are part of a business movement to sell solar panel cookers in the region....

Source

AFP via Yahoo (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

New Mobile Phone Program to Bring Economic Lifeline to Rural Rwanda

(CSRwire) Washington, DC, June 14, 2006 ? With the nearest telephone sometimes six miles away, a mobile phone is more than just a means of communication for rural communities in Rwanda; it is an economic lifeline. To help spur greater telecommunications access for villagers, Grameen Foundation, a global non-profit organization that combines microfinance with new technologies to empower the world?s poorest people, and mobile network operator, MTN Rwanda, are launching an innovative new venture: V...

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Uganda: Bona Bagaggawale: Co-Operatives Would More Effectively Serve the Poverty Eradication Purpose

Abstract: After dabbling in microfinance, Uganda, under the leadership of a new finance minister, is reintroducing the cooperative system as the core of its rural development program. This article also includes interesting commentary on microfinance. As Dr. Augustus Nuwagaba notes about Uganda’s experience wiht microfinance, Uganda’s poverty eradication programmes are usually implemented in a poor way and during time of electioneering. In the end, people per...

Source

The Monitor (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a Utopian, feel-good scheme bound to fail because no single aid agency was held responsible for anything. That was the word from New York University economics professor, William Easterly, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Cape Town this week . Easterly described the MDGs as the worst designed incentive scheme for public policy seen in my lifetime. The MDGs are a set o...

Source

Cape Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

African leaders are seeking Iqbal Surv?s counsel ? his company, Sekunjalo Investments, has been central to the facilitation of a yet to be announced $20bn infrastructure project in a neighbouring country. Walk out of a one-and-a-half hour discussion with Dr Iqbal Surv?, who describes himself as a ?medical doctor, philanthropist and social entrepreneur? and you will disregard all the skeptics and believe that there is hope for Africa to eradicate poverty, and not in our grandchildren...

Source

Business in Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Excerpt:? PAHF aims to provide long-term solutions by helping establish local African production facilities for essential medical products, to increase their availability and affordability. It selects vital medical technologies, such as AD syringes and ITNs, which are identified by the WHO as effective at preventing or treating one of Africa’s major diseases. It targets cost-effective medical supplies which can be manufactured from raw materials available in Africa. PAHF wor...

Source

Vanguard (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Connecting developing nations

A pregnant woman at home alone in her remote village in Sierra Leone unexpectedly went into a difficult labor and, with no access to a doctor or medical facilities, a minor medical emergency could have taken a tragic turn. But the woman, Emma Sesay, managed to use one of the few cellphones in the village of Port Loko and called her husband, who borrowed a car and rushed home from his job, picking up a midwife along the way. They arrived in tim...

Source

International Herald Tribune (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa