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The BiD Network is creating a series of country-specific guides for investing in Small and Medium Enterprises, and they have just published their guide to Colombia. These guides are meant to facilitate foreign investment in the range of $50,000-$2,000,000, and they contain some great information about the investing and regulatory environments in each country. Acumen Fund’s performance management and impact assessment methodology is covered in some detail as well. According to the guide: In mature markets such as in the US and Europe, SMEs benefit from an inflow of capital from venture capitalists, private investors and banks. However, investments in SMEs in Colombia are limited by a lack of information and thus a high perception of risk. “Investing in Small and Medium Sized...

The broad objective of Kenya Women Finance Trust is to access financial and non-financial services to women with small and micro enterprises to enable them develop their businesses, increase income and generate employment-company website. To further their aim of fostering enabling platforms for women entrepreneurs the trust has launched a business club:“We wanted to connect women in business at...

The Independent highlights the success of Peter Murage's Mount Kenya Organic Farm. Uchenna Okoye's cosmetic dentistry practice London Smiling grows in prominence. Imara group a financial services company creates solutions that respond to the unique challenges and opportunities of sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean territories. Faso Investments founded by Modibo Camara pioneers SME access...

At Poptech Erik Hersman discusses seed-funding challenges faced by entrepreneurs: It turns out that one of the main problems in places like Africa, which is somewhat similar to places in India, is that the investors have to be educated first. Seed capital and early venture funding is a high risk proposition. There are few investors who care about technology, and those that do are interested in...

Small business can be a powerful force for change, but its potential to transform societies can be significantly undermined by political actions.  This is the message the Russian business community is sending to the rest of the world. The country’s recent actions in the Caucasus region generated a lot of criticism from nations near and far. While the world powers are mulling over a proper response, tensions are running high with discussions on sanctions and Russia announcing the withdrawal from some WTO agreements (for now at least). The idea of the iron curtain going back down is on the minds of many.  Not the old one, that used to separate communists from capitalists, but a new one defined by the struggle to identify real democratic values. Recognizing the dangers of isolation...

Under President Putin, Special Aide and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Administration Vladislav Surkov was viewed as the Kremlin’s top “ideologist.” Now First Deputy Chief of Staff under President Medvedev, Surkov recently visited the annual summer retreat of the youth group Nashi (Ours). This Kremlin-backed project was designed to counter revolutions engineered from abroad during the 2007-2008 elections. It’s unclear whether the Kremlin believed its own propaganda; most analysts found the idea of a tent city on Red Square laughably impossible. Perhaps Surkov, too, knew this all along, or perhaps, feedback between Russia’s government and its citizens is so distorted that revolution was considered a genuine threat. The truth is immaterial; whether the paranoia was real or staged,...