Why Nigeria topped the list of African countries for Diaspora remittances - Homestrings. Nigeria got a total of $21 billion as home remittances flows from Nigerians living abroad in 2013.
This puts the country as the fifth largest recipient of foreign remittances among developing countries and first in Africa. Data released by the World Bank in Washington on the weekend, showed that India remained in the top spot, with $70 billion in remittances in 2013. Other large recipients according to the Bank are China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($25 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), Egypt ($17 billion), Pakistan ($15 billion), Bangladesh ($14 billion), Vietnam ($11 billion) and Ukraine ($10 billion). Beyond remittances, diaspora and development. Diaspora remittances can spur development WASHINGTON DC, 8 January 2014 (IRIN) - The African diaspora and migrants have for years been instrumental in helping family and friends at home get by, as huge annual remittance flows illustrate, but their contributions beyond remittances could have a significant impact on development, if tapped into.
According to the World Bank, African diaspora savings, at US$53 billion every year, exceed annual remittances to the continent and are mostly invested abroad. “If one in every 10 members of the diaspora could be persuaded to invest $1,000 in his or her country of origin, Africa could raise $3 billion a year for development financing,” Dilip Ratha and Sonia Plaza write in the World Bank’s 2011 report, Diaspora for Development in Africa.
Non-traditional private equity financing can be a win-win solution for SMEs. (Credit: Elis Alves, Flickr Creative Commons) The difficulties faced by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in getting finance, especially in the developing world, have been well documented.
The causes are equally well known. First, traditional bank financing (secured or cash-flow based) is often not available due to the lack of adequate collateral or the opaque modus operandi of many SMEs. Also, financial markets may not be sufficiently well developed to facilitate traditional private equity (PE) financing of SMEs. A typical private equity (PE) firm or fund requires controlling positions in a company it invests.
Supported by the Kenya Ministry of Industrialization, the World Bank financed Kenya Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Competitiveness Project piloted a new SME risk capital financing model. Those investments were tailored to the financing and cash flow needs of the investees on a case-by-case basis. Dear African VC, angel: international investors are stealing your lunch. Is there a shortage of VC and angel funding in Africa?
Pose the question to entrepreneurs and the answer is bound to be yes. Joining forces to advocate for a more affordable Internet. Cross-posted from the Public Policy blog Imagine a world where you spent 30% of your monthly income on basic Internet service.
Could you pay? What might you have to give up? For billions of people, these costs--and questions--are an unaffordable reality that stop them from accessing the Web. Today, Google is joining more than 30 members to launch the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), a new coalition that cuts across boundaries of geography, sector, or size. New technologies play a crucial role in bringing the Internet to more people worldwide--we’ve developed and invested in many of these big ideas over the years. These technologies can have major impact, but no single solution can connect the 5 billion people living without Internet access today. Initiated by the World Wide Web Foundation, A4AI includes members from the technology, government, and nonprofit worlds, from developed and developing countries.
Dossier formation : quelles sont les meilleures écoles de commerce africaines ? Orange African Social Venture Prize 2013 – the awardsEntrepreneurship. Is trust a crucial factor for small businesses in Africa to succeed? Victoria has been running a small business that deals in computers and medical equipment in Dar es Salaam for about five years now.
While she is making a bit of money, the business has in fact not grown to a point where she can afford an extra hand. Compared to trends in industrial and emerging economies, small businesses like Victoria’s operating in developing countries have generally failed to become the main vectors of growth, job creation, and innovation. This failure is generally attributed to insufficient skills and financial resources in the hands of local entrepreneurs in addition to unreasonable administrative and transport costs. The East African startup landscape: everything you need to know. Growth first, returns later, says African e-commerce group. Africa Internet Holding, an e-commerce business that has a vision to “accelerate the online shift in Africa” is betting on the continent’s internet revolution to build sustainable online businesses.
Sacha Poignonnec, co-CEO of Africa Internet Holding A joint venture between Berlin headquartered internet incubator Rocket Internet and telecoms operator Millicom International Cellular, Africa Internet Holding (AIH) is quickly making a mark in Africa’s emerging e-commerce sector. AIH, which has a portfolio of seven startups, has launched e-commerce platforms in nine countries in Africa: Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal and South Africa. The firm’s parent company Rocket Internet has built more than 100 technology startups in 50 countries. GDP - real growth rate by country - Thematic Map - Africa. mPawa: Mobile Job Matching Application for Blue Collar Recruitment. Western analysts and fund managers discuss the investment case for Africa. Pages: 1 2 3 4 Africa has a population of over a billion with growing urbanisation.
By 2025 there will be over 60 cities with more than a million inhabitants. It also benefits from vast mineral resources, being home to 8% of the world’s oil reserves and 7% of natural gas reserves, and a major exporter of both. Pricing for Business Video Sharing. What's the deal with bandwidth?
Bandwidth can sometimes be confusing when it comes to video hosting. It’s difficult to anticipate how much you’ll need, and how much it might end up costing you. We've set our bandwidth limits so high, that most Wistia users will never need to worry about it. In fact, 99% of our customers don’t even come close. Google chairman Eric Schmidt shares his thoughts on Africa. Nigerians are a nation of entrepreneurs; while the Kenyan capital of Nairobi has established itself as a technology hub.
Eric Schmidt So wrote Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, in a post on Google+, after spending a week in sub-Saharan Africa. “Nigeria, known as a land of oil corruption and the ubiquitous 419 email scams, is the biggest surprise to a first time visitor. Nigerians are entrepreneurial, stylish, educated, and have the belief that their country can emerge as the next Brazil,” wrote Schmidt.
12 young African entrepreneurs who will blow your mind, seriously. What where you doing at 15? What about at 19? Or 22? If you are one of these 12 entrepreneurs, the answer is: changing the world. Examining Cameroon’s unique business environment. Following independence, many sub-Saharan African countries adopted the language of their colonisers as the official national language.
English, French and Portuguese are therefore still widely spoken across the continent. Ousmanou Kouotou The Central African country of Cameroon is, however, unique in that it has both English and French as official languages. This is a result of its colonial past where one part of the country was under French control and the other under British rule.
Member Preferences. The growing anger of the merely, barely middle class. The growing militancy of middle class citizens in developing countries is very much in the news these days; and there is a corresponding attempt to understand why so many protest movements in developing countries are now being led by hitherto quiescent middle classes. I have particularly enjoyed analyses by Francis Fukuyama in the Wall Street Journal, President Lula of Brazil in the New York Times and James Surowiecki in the New Yorker. The humble contribution I’d like to make (from my personal experience) is this. To understand the growing anger of middle class citizens in developing countries you have to understand two aspects of the conditions under which they live: the merely bit and the barely bit.
10 millionnaires du net africains à surveiller de près. Le Nigérian Jason Njoku, fondateur de iRokoTV, a levé près de 12 millions de dollars auprès d'investisseurs privés. DR Si l'Afrique n'a pas encore trouvé son Mark Zuckerberg, le boom des nouvelles technologies sur le continent a permis l'éclosion de nouvelles fortunes issues de la Net-économie. Si l'Afrique n'a pas encore son Mark Zuckerberg (le fondateur et PDG du réseau social Facebook), le boom des nouvelles technologies (NTIC) récemment expérimenté par le continent a permis à certains pionniers et entrepreneurs du net africains de faire fortune. Spécialistes de la vente en ligne, de la communication numérique ou de la fourniture de services internet, ces personnalités qui révolutionnent le web africain attirent de plus en plus l'attention et les financements des fonds d'investissement et des géants technologiques mondiaux.
Get Started. Banque mobile : et si les banques tiraient enfin leur épingle du jeu ? The Economist explains: Why does Kenya lead the world in mobile money? PAYING for a taxi ride using your mobile phone is easier in Nairobi than it is in New York, thanks to Kenya’s world-leading mobile-money system, M-PESA. Launched in 2007 by Safaricom, the country’s largest mobile-network operator, it is now used by over 17m Kenyans, equivalent to more than two-thirds of the adult population; around 25% of the country’s gross national product flows through it. M-PESA lets people transfer cash using their phones, and is by far the most successful scheme of its type on earth. Innovation in Africa: Upwardly mobile. Busting the myths about doing business in Africa. Africa needs to deal with the misconceptions around the continent’s size, risks and opportunities by branding and marketing itself better.