Anglo American's global lead for enterprise development, Christian Spano, talks to Guardian Sustainable Business about why the company's involvement with small and medium business enterprise is both a business and moral issue. He shares his experience in what works and what doesn't and offers advice to other companies keen to be involved in enterprise development.
The Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA) is a trade union for poor, self-employed women workers in India.
Improving the performance of the agricultural sector is seen as critical for driving economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa. In most regional economies, though, agribusinesses face a large financing gap.
In Ethiopia, IFC’s Warehouse Receipts Financing Initiative has been helping expand access to financing for farmers, traders, and cooperatives and develop agricultural commodities markets since 2009.
IFC's specialized investment funds for high-potential SMEs in frontier markets help create jobs and reduce poverty in some of the world's poorest countries.
IFC has supported Bank South Pacific Rural roll out banking services across remote areas of the Pacific Island nation Papua New Guinea, helping villagers to do business and improve families' livelihoods.
With IFC's support, BSP Rural is using tablet computers and mobile banking system to establish banking services in the post-conflict zone of Bougainville after a nine-year civil war halted all banking operations. As the only bank operating in the area, BSP Rural is providing a vital service that is helping to rebuild the once thriving region.
NpM organised together with FMO and Triple Jump a conference on 'SME Finance, how to reach the missing middle?' 200 people participated in the conference and together with 15 speakers, the lively discussions led to a lot of exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise.
Factoring is one of the best ways for SMEs to get immediate liquidity, better cash flows, increase sales and reduce administrative costs. In 2005, the MIF supported Credifactor a pioneering institution in factoring that promotes greater access to financing for small Nicaraguan businesses.
Interesting debate during AFI Global Policy Forum 2013 on driving innovative policies for the financial inclusion of agricultural SMEs.
With banks reluctant to lend, start-ups and small firms need new ways to raise capital.
Finovate has hosted several events in the US, Europe and Asia to showcase innovative financial and banking technologies. This website contains a repository of demo videos.
