Microfinance, Innovations, Sustainable Development - Innovation

GCC companies need to focus more on innovation management for business success

Gerard — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:40:02 GMT

Many GCC businesses are struggling during these tough economic times and are even missing an opportunity to grow, because they are not focusing sufficiently on Innovation Management says an expert in the UAE.

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Nigeria's top banker wins international recognition

Gerard — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:21:56 GMT

Nigeria is frequently cited as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, but its central banker has won two international banking awards. Mallam Lamido Aminu Sanusi has been named as the Central Bank Governor of 2010 for both the African continent and the entire world, by the prestigious Banker Magazine.

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Three Innovation Takeaways from Asia

Gerard — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:18:29 GMT

The West is overly discounting Asia's growth potential. Innovation has never been more accessible. We're on the verge of a golden age of innovation. The human side of innovation must be addressed. More focus must go to solving the first mile problem... Written by Scott Anthony from Singapore

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2010: Rapidly developing countries are innovation champions

Gerard — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:04:03 GMT

Top emerging economies are forging research collaborations to help the less well-off. The idea that poorer countries should catch up economically with wealthier ones before spending heavily on R&D was challenged by a report released last week. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report contradicts theories widely held by development professionals and international organizations such as the World Bank.

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Shanti Microfinance Launches $772K MFI Fund

Gerard — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:24:36 GMT

Shanti Microfinance, a not-for-profit organization, is raising a $772,000 (£500,000) fund backed by UK and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The firm has already disbursed £10k (USD) and plans to start its operations in Gujarat before moving to Mumbai next year.

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Why biodiversity loss and climate change are equal threats

Gerard — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:56:47 GMT

Our biggest ally will be lost if we do not protect and enhance biodiversity in forests and other systems. Since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the media and many organisations have pursued as separate narratives the issues of climate, biodiversity and sustainable development. One of the changes this year, at a UN level, has been recognition that this does not make sense.

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Technology: IBM predicts five big tech innovations coming by 2015

Gerard — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:21:00 GMT

IBM unveils its fifth annual "Next Five in Five" -- a list of innovations with the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The Next Five in Five is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's Labs around the world that can make these innovations possible.

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Kiva.org and KIEDF Partner to Bring Online Microfinance to Israel

Gerard — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 16:00:19 GMT

Kiva, the world's first personal micro-lending website, has teamed with KIEDF (Koret Israel Economic Development Funds) to launch its first and only partnership with an Israeli microfinance institution. This alliance will allow individuals anywhere to make small loans through the Kiva website to Bedouin women of the Negev, Arab Israelis in northern Israel, and other low-income populations throughout Israel.

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Wokai: Contributing to Microfinance in China

Gerard — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:47:07 GMT

Wokai is an organization that allows people to contribute directly to microfinance institutions in China, which in turn lend the money to entrepreneurs in rural China. It is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, with core operations in Beijing, supported by individual donors, corporate sponsors, fundraising events and grants.

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Lao stock exchange to begin trading on January 11 and get its first IPOs launch

Gerard — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:13:34 GMT

The Lao Securities Exchange is scheduled to start trading the shares of two state enterprises on January 11, state media reports said Wednesday.

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World Bank: Hydropower helps Laos government

Gerard — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:48:48 GMT

The government in Laos has funneled revenue generated from electricity sales from a hydroelectric plant to the public sector, the World Bank said.

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Waste as energy - a key trend for the sustainable industry in 2011

Gerard — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:45:39 GMT

Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving both public and private growth companies around the world, has published its predictions for sustainable industries in 2011. One of the four predictions is that waste-to-energy technologies will grow and become part of mainstream society.

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G20, Basel III and Its Implications for the World Banking System

Gerard — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 20:57:58 GMT

The Group of 20 Summit scheduled for November in Seoul will provide a forum for a wide range of economic and fiscal issues, ranging from World Bank governance to fossil fuel subsidies.

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Omidyar Network Supports Innovations in Mobile Technology With Grant to Praekelt Foundation in Africa

Gerard — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:49:56 GMT

Omidyar Network announced an $825,000 grant to Praekelt Foundation to support its pioneering use of mobile technology to drive positive social change. Funded through Omidyar Network's Government Transparency investment area, the grant will be used to extend the Foundation's mobile technology platforms across Africa. Built to take advantage of rapidly growing mobile penetration throughout the continent, these mobile platforms will provide the technological foundation and infrastructure for a variety of initiatives focusing on healthcare, education, human rights and government transparency initiatives.

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World Bank chief to launch carbon market fund

Gerard — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:55:04 GMT

World Bank President Robert Zoellick is set to launch a new multi-million dollar fund in Mexico on Wednesday to help emerging market countries set up their own carbon markets, the bank said on Tuesday.

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Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes launches Jumo, social network for social activism

Gerard — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 03:09:05 GMT

Hughes, who left Facebook in 2007 to become the Obama campaign's director of online organizing, soft-launched Jumo last March. Jumo was designed to let users find, follow and support the causes important to them, and with 3,500 organizations on board at launch, would-be philanthropists should be able to find and follow something of interest upon joining.

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Google: New Internet Traffic Record

Gerard — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:43:13 GMT

The internet is growing fast, but Google is growing even faster. According to online security company Arbor Networks, Google now represents an average 6.4 percent of all internet traffic. This is a new record for Google, as it gained more than 1 percent of all internet traffic share since January. Now, only one global ISP handles more traffic, and a lot of that traffic is Google's traffic, anyway. The number is even more incredible if you consider that internet traffic is growing at a staggering 40 to 45 percent each year, and Google is still gaining market share.

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Zambia: Gender and Rural Finance workshop at Lusaka

Gerard — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:57:14 GMT

The grant funded a one day workshop in Lusaka to look at gender issues in rural microfinance programmes. 43 people participated in the workshop, including managers and gender specialists from government ministries, financial institutions, community based organizations and NGOs, donors and colleges. There was also participation from IFAD and FAO.

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University of North Carolina: Simulcast lectures broaden microfinance horizon

Gerard — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:35:39 GMT

Using Skype as a medium, a lecture at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business was broadcast to UNC students along with students at other schools. The streamed lecture was part of an ongoing series that allows students to have access to the most prominent minds in microfinance.

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Opportunity International Encourages Citizen Diplomacy and Economic Empowerment

Gerard — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:17:24 GMT

Claudia Kennedy, Member of Opportunity's Board of Advisors and First Woman U.S. Army Lieutenant General, Encourages Individuals to Recognize Their Power to Improve People's Lives Around the World.

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LemonWay: Exploring new ways to bank

Gerard — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:59:15 GMT

Lemon Way is an Independent Software Vendor that helps banks build a differentiated competitive advantage with innovating solutions based on mobile devices or TV channels. The software suite Wonderbank enables banks to provide their customers robust, secure, transactional solutions for routine and advanced banking enquiries.

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For the unbanked, is mobile money cheap enough?

Gerard — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:53:33 GMT

Claudia McKay and Mark Pickens from CGAP have pulled together a comprehensive global pricing study on banking services targeting poor, unbanked and underbanked people in Africa, Asia and Brazil. The study examines pricing for services targeting unbanked and underbanked poor people in 10 countries. The conclusion: mobile banking and other forms of branchless banking are cheaper than traditional banking, but the gap between the two may not be as wide as some may think.

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Rise of the social entrepreneur

Gerard — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:58:50 GMT

rise of entrepreneurial innovations that use mainstream financial instruments to facilitate social development. Corporate social investment (CSI) experts predict that a growing merger between social entrepreneurship and CSI will be one of the world's top trends in the future.

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Probanx - Core Banking Software - Microfinance Software

Gerard — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:56:44 GMT

Probanx Information Systems specializes in development of software for the financial institutions, offering multi-currency and multi-lingual banking systems with a large variety of modules, based on the latest technologies. We install and support turn-key international Banking Software and Microfinance Software solutions for retail banks, commercial banks, Internet banks and microfinance banks.

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Middle East And North Africa "Social Entrepreneurs Of The Year"

Gerard — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:38:14 GMT

Two Social Entrepreneurs one from Morocco and one from Tunisia - were recognized as leading social innovators during a plenary session at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa, Marrakech, Morocco on 26 October. The awards were conferred by Hilde Schwab, Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

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Book: The Case for Sustainable Business as Good Business

Gerard — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:29:08 GMT

In their book "Sustainable Excellence", Aron Cramer and Zachary Karabell make a compelling case for why a focus on sustainability -- whether it concerns, for example, climate change, energy consumption or labor relations -- is now a form of enlightened self-interest for businesses. For starters, commodity prices have been soaring as investors wake up to a world marked by rapid population growth and overstretched resources.

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High Networth Investor Takes A Piece Of FINO

Gerard — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:45:11 GMT

Even as the microfinance sector is facing the possibility of new regulations that will reduce interest rates lenders charge in Indian hinterland, perhaps resulting in a drop in margins, rich Indians still feel there is money to be made at least in firms providing services to firms doing business at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.

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African Development Bank Supports African Women Entrepreneurs

Gerard — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:18:59 GMT

Women entrepreneurs constitute one of the key drivers of Africa's sustainable growth. As Africa's lead development partner, the African Development Bankactively supports women entrepreneurs.

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While the current attacks on microfinance are unwarranted, overblown claims about it also need to be tempered

Gerard — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:46:26 GMT

Microfinance has had a quick slide down the popularity charts— from being celebrated as a magic wand against poverty to being condemned as a business riddled with loan sharks.

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The Rise of Sustainable Investing for Institutions

Gerard — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:09:28 GMT

Why the time is right for sustainable thinking by pension funds and institutional investors: When Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Towers Watson, the investment consultant, turns his mind to a subject, the pensions world listens. Urwin, one of the most influential investment advisors around, has worked with many of the world’s largest retirement schemes. His recent attention to the theme of sustainable investing is notable because of his experience in the reality of pension fund practice and governance.

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LemonWay: Exploring new ways to bank

Gerard — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 22:23:24 GMT

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Mobile is the future of microfinance?

Gerard — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:13:36 GMT

Lyon created a system to bring formal financial services to microfinance institutions and poor entrepreneurs via a mobile phone. He believes the new software, to be launched by the organization he founded, FrontlineSMS:Credit, could change the world of microfinance by changing the way the poor interact with the institutions.

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The Five Best Mobile Apps Now in American Banks

Gerard — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 04:22:45 GMT

Lots of banks are getting on board with basic mobile banking this year, but there's not been too much innovation when it comes to functionality. A handful of banks are leading the way with widely available capabilities that set them apart from the pack.

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Australia: NAB praised for credit card fee overhaul

Gerard — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:47:17 GMT

Consumer groups are applauding moves by the National Australia Bank (NAB) that are set to save credit card customers up to hundreds of dollars a year. "There are plenty of other tricks and traps with credit cards that need to be ironed out and we would invite the others to do likewise - move before regulation comes in." Whether or not they do is likely to be watched closely by the holders of the more than 16 million credit cards currently on issue in Australia.

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Payment systems costing online retailers time and money: survey

Gerard — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:38:23 GMT

Online retailers are spending too much time and money dealing with card not present payments, a new study has found. “It is surprising that UK merchants are still opting to continue with manual reconciliation and patchwork payment systems.”

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All new Nokia smartphones to come with NFC from 2011

Gerard — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 04:25:57 GMT

The announcement was made by a top Nokia executive at the Mobey Forum's 10th anniversary meeting in Helsinki this morning.

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Netherlands to have mobile payment system by 2012

Gerard — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 04:31:28 GMT

Consumers in the Netherlands will be using smartphones as mobile wallets within two years as result of a joint venture between top banks and mobile operators.

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KFW: Africa Gains Connection to Globalisation

Gerard — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:10:25 GMT

KfW Entwicklungsbank is helping improve internet access in Africa: the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) provides about 250 million people on the continent with international communication through telephone and internet.

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Confessions of a Micro-Financier

Gerard — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:20:54 GMT

Microfinance doesn’t help the very poor. While the argument that all the attention the microlending industry attracts sometimes diverts funds from reaching programs that need it more is not new, we were surprised to see it outlined by Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance Ltd.

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Suntech to Energize Southeast Asia's Largest Solar Power Plant

Gerard — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:01:12 GMT

Suntech Power Holdings, the world's leading producer of crystalline silicon solar panels, has been selected to supply 34.5MW of solar panels for the first phase of the largest solar power plant in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Owned and operated by Bangchak Petroleum, and integrated by Solartron, the planned 44MW (38MW AC output capacity) solar power plant will be located just outside of Bangkok and generate decades of renewable energy for the booming metropolis and surrounding areas.

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Microfinance groups help small businesses grow

Gerard — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:47:37 GMT

Three years ago, Loretta Nguyen took a business training class and scraped together several thousand dollars to start silk screening T-shirts and hoodies that she initially sold at street fairs and over the Web.

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All Nokia Smartphones to be NFC-enabled from 2011

Gerard — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:17:03 GMT

All Nokia smartphones released by the company from 2011 will come with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology built in, according to Near Field Communications World (NFCW).

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Mobile payment users seen to reach 109 million

Gerard — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:04:04 GMT

Mobile payment users worldwide are forecast to increase 2.1 percent to 109 million by the end of 2010, a US-based research firm said in a report.

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Africa on the cusp of a mobile payments boom

Gerard — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:59:18 GMT

Mobile technology has the greatest chance of delivering financial services to Africa’s estimated 325 million low-income, un-banked people. Examples of African financial innovations abound and the results are being felt across the continent, where mobile phone penetration continues to skyrocket. Dianna Games writes about the success stories and the need for investors to think from the ground up.

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Public issue of SKS Microfinance to open on July 28

Gerard — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:16:27 GMT

SKS Microfinance Limited, the largest Micro Finance Institution in India, today announced that its public issue will open on July 28.

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Georgia: MobiPay will change your life

Gerard — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:41:32 GMT

On July 1 Open Revolution and Geocell announced the ultimate innovative mobile payment method - MobiPay, which allows you to make purchases, bill payments and person to person money transfers much more easily, more quickly, more safely and more conveniently by mobile phone.

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Decoding microfinance

Gerard — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:27:49 GMT

He would have been a hardcore banker had he not branched out to microfinance. And that was because “it is a business with a social mission offering double bottom line satisfaction to all stakeholders”. Udaia Kumar, MD Share Microfin Limited Interviewed by Pranab Ghosh, Hindustan Times.

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Nigeria: NAMB wants microfinance banks to patner with credit bureaux

Gerard — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:44:03 GMT

Matthias Omeh, president, National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), on Monday advised microfinance banks to partner with credit bureaux to ascertain the status of their customers.

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Ghana: Prestigious US$350,000 Africa Entrepreneurship Prize Launched

Gerard — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:54:07 GMT

2010 Legatum Africa Awards to Recognise and Reward Africa's Entrepreneurial Business Leaders. Awards Ceremony to be Hosted in Accra, Ghana

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SAB universal banking system

Gerard — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:33:15 GMT

SAB is a French vendor of core banking solutions with an international presence, mainly in francophile institutions across Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Pacific. Established in 1989, SAB is an independent group that publishes an integrated software package for banking and financial institutions: the SAB solution for front to back office banking operations.

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