Browsing: World Bank

As far back as June 28, 2017, This Day Live said another point to note is that USSD is very important within emerging economies, where the cost to access data services is increasing. Despite the growth of smartphone penetration and 3G/4G coverage, the data access cost is a key factor in deciding how information is consumed.

Meanwhile, the continued reliability of USSD will enable mobile service providers and financial institutions more opportunities to satisfy new market segments, add more value to the customer, and meet underserved customer needs.

In a related article by Myriad Connect published January 29, 2018, the core benefit of USSD is that it doesn’t rely on a data connection to operate, thereby helping reach the billions of people in areas where network coverage is at its most basic or for sectors of the population for whom a data connection is too expensive to access.

So long as a phone can make a call and send a text, then the technology is good to go.

Each year, the programme supports ten small and medium Kenyan female-led entrepreneurial businesses by offering mentorship, advisory, coaching, networking opportunities, access to seed capital and investor forums that help mould their businesses to international standards.

The mentorship takes 12 weeks where the teams are offered expert training in the areas of business idea conceptualization, strategy formulation and marketing, which is key in moving the businesses from incubation to sustainable ventures.

The ten businesses shortlisted from more than 300 applications will compete for up to Ksh1 million in seed funding. Since its inception, 30 start-ups have participated, 15 have been awarded Ksh1 million each in seed funding, and 41 businesses have so far gone through the incubation process, with the first four cohorts attracting 1,150 applications.

In September last year, the government started making quarterly token payments of $100,000 to each of the 16 Paris Club creditors as it sought ways to extinguish the mounting debt.

As of the end of May, Zimbabwe had made $8 million in token payments to multilateral banks and $4.8 million to the Paris Club creditors.

The article added that Zimbabwe is already defaulting on active loans from China, which is affecting the disbursement of funds for ongoing projects, the debt management office said in the report.

African countries have started recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic after most economies shrunk due to the crisis.

The continent is home to over a billion people who live in low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries.

The economy in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region is projected to expand by 3.6 per cent in 2022, down from 4 per cent in 2021, according to World Bank.

The Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) will receive $100 million from the Wold to support a programme that…

African governments saw a series decline in public revenues during the pandemic Unemployment has surged in Nigeria and South Africa…

Zimbabwe to introduce electronic courts early next month, with all the partners trained and geared to embrace the development. President…

The continent internet economy can reach $180 billion by 2025, accounting for 5.2 per cent of Africa’s GDP Africa’s access…

Global poverty is not only the current threat to the progression of humanity. Inequality is yet another block that spikes the fire.

According to Oxfam, even after the pandemic threw higher costs of life to communities worldwide, the wealth billionaires own risen sharply compared to 14 years ago.

In this case, South Africa presents an exciting take to analyze. South Africa is an unequal country in the world.

In the second top economy in Africa, race plays a crucial factor in fueling inequality, where 10 per cent of the population owns more than 80 per cent of the wealth, according to information from Aljazeera.

On the governmental level, complications may arise when handling mass starvation and social cohesion for millions of people in locked nations in East Africa, Yemen, Syria and the Sahel.

Sub-saharan Africa now faces new economic growth challenges, compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine A World Bank report estimates…