"...Santa Yalla, is a homegrown women’s loan association which means “praise God,” brings together clients of a small loans program in the country’s Casamance region. The female entrepreneurs make sure all loans are repaid. They have to be prudent – there’s simply too much at stake..."-USAID. Kiva is presently assisting the organization with fund...
Spring Mortgage aims to provide innovative and affordable mortgage solutions.
New Farm discusses livestock fattening.
Spore reports on grafting Shea trees.
Bruno Gilbert outlines his inventions which include the Counter Collision Gadget...
"...T-Mortgage serves the needs of the growing residential property market by delivering customer focused, streamlined processes designed to make home buying as convenient and easy as getting a cell phone. Charles Inyangete, T-Mortgage Chief Executive Officer commented, "Over the past several years it has become apparent to me that the home ownership market in Tanzania is under served. The...
Iroko Securities which arranged the first corporate issuance of a USD denominated bond in sub-Saharan Africa "...provides capital to a broad range of sovereign, quasi-sovereign local corporate and financial institutions based in Africa. It offers investment services to international investors seeking to gain exposure on African credits..."-company...
The Innovation Hub covered earlier co-launches a pre-incubation initiative "for young online entrepreneurs."-Startup Africa,HatTip Sean Park!
Buy into Africa says the Investors Chronicle
Juhel, a growing Pharmaceutical manufacturer founded by Ifeanyi Okoye
Green Wifi covered earlier in...
Reuters profiles Nigeria's largest insurance group,Industrial and General Insurance (IGI):
The company plans a $2 billion expansion drive in Africa, the company's chief executive officer told Reuters.Three years ago, the insurance firm began expanding out of Nigeria, initially investing in Ghana, Gambia and Uganda.
"Originally we set aside $200 million of our own funds but we see this attracting...
NaijaBlog profiles ecommerce in Nigeria:
E-commerce development has been painfully slow in Nigeria, given the lack of epayments infrastructure. ReLoadNG is already proving popular - you can use your local bank Interswitch card to buy PHCN and phone credit. Given there is no real-time reconciliation with the telcos apparently available, the system works by the company having sufficient scratch...
Ghana Chronicle profiles the growth of Atwima Rural Bank
Gambia's first investment bank BSIC Gambia is launched-GambiaNow
Simphani brings to our attention a video on village phones in Uganda.
Naija Blog proffers a simple power solution for Nigeria.
Makezine profiles "a proven, commercialized technology" for generating power from manure.
West Africa Sustainable Economic Initiative shares are...
African Renewal reports:
Ann Wanjiku walks up to a green-and-white booth with an “M-Pesa agent” sign on it. There she shows the agent her identity card and her cell phone, which displays a PIN number provided by a client. Using the PIN number, the M-Pesa agent takes just a minute to verify that the client has transferred payment for 1,000 traditional carvings into Ms. Wanjiku’s mobile money...
Fusion Capital offers SME focused financial solutions.
Derrick Ashong launches Ashong Ventures.
The Economist applauds Endeavor's success in spreading the gospel of entrepreneurship.
CopperNet leads in the provision of information technology services.
Founded by Baba Jibrin Adamu, Inetworks Canada believes strongly in the provision of low-cost communications and...
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Led by Karanja Macharia, Mobile Planet "...develops voice and data applications for mobile devices. Their applications enable networks and corporate clients entertain, interact and transact via SMS, MMS and WAP with the growing mobile market in Africa..."In a related story White African discusses an equity stock investment in the company by Google, and wonders whether this is the start of a...
Omatek covered earlier, raises N6bln ($51mln) in their recently concluded IPO.
A $100 Million Legacy Africa Alpha Hedge Fund Launched By INTL Consilium and First City Monument Bank.- HedgCo
Oson Chemist describes itself as "...a leader in pharmaceutical distribution and supply chain management..."
Emmanuel Banza a mechanic, describes his mill for crushing cassava leaves,a necessary food...
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Nigeria,hot bed for mobile banking?
SAGE 2008 world cup won by Nigerian team.
Umbele, A variation of the Kiva model?
Acits exits Nigerian telecoms...
Image via WikipediaThe FT reports:
“African markets are not immune to the doldrums in global stock markets but have not performed as badly as emerging markets such as India and China,” says John Mackie, head of Africa funds at Stanlib Asset Management...In the same period, inflows into Africa regional equity funds have totalled $247m, while China equity funds have seen outflows of nearly $4bn,...
Image via WikipediaSean Park at the Park Paradigm writes:One of the most obvious - yet no less powerful or potentially transformational for it - themes is the combination of mobile communications, internet and geo-location technologies to disseminate information and increase connectedness from the bottom up. This emergent collective intelligence is all the more remarkable, given the typical...
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Emmanuel Mbulu founder of Tone-a-Matic a muscle stimulator manufacturer, discusses entrepreneurship.
New Scientist profiles rugged wheelchair prototypes for the developing world.
Reuters reports that currency traders and investors are increasingly drawn to African currencies. via Cheetah Index
"Ndume Little Pick-up" a solution to waste...
From the PSD Blog:
Business Partners specializes in providing small businesses with risk capital,and at reaching large numbers of small companies. Over the past few years BPI has provided thousands of SMEs with equity, quasi-equity and - crucially - hands-on advice.
One of the key products which BPI offers is the so-called "royalty loans" whereby the entrepreneur is provided with a low interest...
NaijaCar reports on the Innoson automotive initiative.
Nubia Estates offers private residence owners' Club.
Food crisis a boom for small farmers?
More on the opportunity in Africa's frontier markets.
Using oil palm crops to heal Lake Victoria
Burundian Ashura Kisesa, wins a young entrepreneur...
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From the X-prize Foundation website:
The X PRIZE Foundation is researching prizes structured around entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. The focus is to find methods that catalyze profit-generating firms both in terms of financial as well as human development metrics that address major development challenges in agriculture, capital, education, health and water. The goal of these...
Hedge Funds Review reports on the launch of a new index:
The Africa Titans 50 Index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalisation. Each country’s weight is capped at 25% and weights of individual components are capped at 8% with a maximum of 15 companies for a country to be included in the index, companies must have a minimum market capitalisation of $200 million and a minimum three-month...
African Investments getting hotter? See Msn video here via LadyBrille.
Market gardening takes root in Burkina Faso.
Georgetown Capital offers investment opportunities.
Adding value to the cashew trade-African Cashew...
Image via WikipediaMavuno Capital's Michael Swanich stated that:
Our philosophy is that Africans themselves should develop agriculture in Africa. More than 60% of all economically active people in Africa are employed in the agricultural sector and Africa will never be a successful continent unless people are empowered in agriculture.
The company's strategy is:
based on the BOT (Build, Operate...
China equity fund to invest $300 mln in Africa.
Transcorp expands its hospitality footprint.
Food prices to spur agriculture investment.
Electric cycle rickshaws as a sustainable transport system via Inhabitat
Crustamer-Specialist processor of...
Ft gives an overview on the"rapid growth of private equity" in Africa. via Africaincorp
Ladybrille covers Nollywood and more in their latest issue.
Nubian Cheetah takes a look at ExZeed a BPO provider
African Architecture & Design highlights the bamboo construction...
Kathryn Tully at Yahoo News reports on Root Capital & the importance of SME's
Microfinance may have captured the imagination of social investors but even microfinance fund managers accept that it can play only one part in social and economic development. Providing banking services to those SMEs in the "missing middle" is crucial because, while a microloan can support one street vendor or one...
"...IWB is a grass roots initiative designed to fill a key gap in the financial markets of developing countries known as the missing middle. The missing middle are the small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are too large for microfinance, but too small to meet the requirements of many traditional financial institutions.Globally, the SME sector is a significant driver of employment growth....
Bloomberg reports:
African markets are ``extremely untapped and have huge potential to grow,'' said Nicolas Clavel, London-based chief investment officer at Scipion Capital, a hedge fund manager with $100 million in emerging-market assets that bought shares in Safaricom's IPO. ``Investors are realizing they need to move into these markets before they miss the most rapid growth phase.''...
The Lekki Concession Company's primary project is the Build Operate Transfer:
Lekki Toll Road...which underpins the "Lagos Infrastructure Project",it will include upgrading and creating new Road Infrastructure along the first 49.4km of the Lekki-Epe Expressway (Phase I)...they the Concessionaire will be required to operate and maintain the road for the full 30-year term of the Concession, and...
Microcapital reports on the establishment of UBA Microfinance which:
Will target a client base that encompasses micro and small enterprises and family and rural business, with an emphasis on businesses owned by women. UBA Microfinance hopes to provide services which include micro lending, micro investment, micro deposits and small business advisory. Elumelu says that UBA will operate “the new...
Sean Park discusses opportunity at the Park Paradigm:
In a nutshell, it really comes down to the power of looking at the industry from a completely different perspective: understanding how markets and financial services can be made to work in the context of sub-saharan Africa, necessarily forces you to see the industry through a radically different prism: infrastructure, distribution, price...