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aminej

Ghana maintains score on Corruption Perception Index | ARAP-Ghana - 0 views

  • The 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) was released worldwide on 23 January 2020, scoring and ranking 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of corruption.  The Index put together by Transparency International ranks countries annually by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.
    • aminej
       
      The corruption index ranks Ghana 75th worldwide, doing better than 37 african countries but less than 9 others. Still corruption can be considered as a threat for our company since it can affect the political framework in which our company operates
  • The index foresees a range between zero (highly corrupt) and 100 (very clean), and based on these points, it ranks countries from the best performing to the worst-performing.  Since CPI is a perception index, no country will ever achieve a perfect score.  
kenza_abdelhaq

AgroCenta CEO on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship in Ghana - 0 views

  • Does being an entrepreneur in Ghana – and in a developing economy in Africa – presents any ulterior challenges you had overcome?Being an entrepreneur in Africa and in emerging markets, in general, is quite difficult because of the lack of structure and supports put in place by the government. It requires a lot of courage and persistence to get the simplest things done. Any simple tech solution that you might want to build can end up being a very complex challenge because it relies on services that do not exist or don’t work properly. Access to funding also remains a big problem for many entrepreneurs who will need money to test, pilot and scale a platform or a solution. Many investors are quite held back when it comes to making investments in Africa for an obvious reason: corruption.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reflects the challenges faced by AgroCenta in Ghana, i.e. corruption, lack of financing, lack of proper infrastructure, lack of government help, among other things.
  • Our business model is simple, we are a B2B business that generates commission fees on trade volumes from the businesses we work with.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is extremely important because it clearly states the business model of the company.
  • we are definitely improving the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers through fair trade. Many smallholder farmers are paid less than $1 a day and our objective is to increase it to $4 a day by 2020.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      AgroCenta is an extremely important concept because it is helping to increase farmers' salaries. Going from $1 a day to $4 a day is already an improvement.
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  • AgroCenta focuses on 3 key impact goals for Ghana:No Poverty: Gender Equality: in Sub-Saharan Africa, traditions and land ownerships do not favor women, which ends up in many women being excluded from the agriculture value chain. By engaging the relevant stakeholders, AgroCenta rents arable agricultural lands to female smallholder farmers for free. Women are also given seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services and extensive advisory information on farming best practices such as what type of seed to plant, when to plant, how to plant, etc.Decent Work & Economic Growth: we empower smallholder farmers to see agriculture as more than just a way to survive and position it as a viable industry that can be sustainable for their family.
    • mehdibella
       
      as you can see this company cares a lot about the livelyhood of their farmers and is trying to provide them only with the best features that would make life easier which in fact the main things that they tackle in the SDGs.
  • Seedstars Summit has been phenomenal. It has put AgroCenta on a pedestal and in the spotlight of a huge community in Africa. The experience after the Summit has been amazing: we received a lot of proposals from potential investors, partners and other service providers keen on working with us for growth and expansion.
  • Winning the vote of the entire jury, AgroCenta from Ghana was crowned the Seedstars Global Winner of the 5th edition of Seedstars Summit. At Seedstars, we are convinced that AgroCenta will shape the future of AgriTech in Africa. Indeed, the start-up’s mission is to improve the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers through fair trade.
    • aminej
       
      Agrocenta will have a great impact on farmers in Africa since it will enable them to protect their production and have an insurace in case of any risks. It will also help them regulate the market of agricultural products in order to set a price for each one
  • We identified a missing gap in the value chain that was the capacity to access the market for smallholder farmers after they have successfully cultivated their commodities. Access to the market was a huge problem for millions of smallholder farmers.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta is fulfilling a market gap that is the need for smallholder farmers to access the market.
  • AgroCenta focuses as well as Seedstars on achieving the Sustainable Goals set up by the UN
    • sawsanenn
       
      one of the main goals is to reach economic growth by empowering smallholders farmers to see agriculture not only as a survival solution but as an investment
  • Gender Equality: in Sub-Saharan Africa, traditions and land ownerships do not favor women, which ends up in many women being excluded from the agriculture value chain. By engaging the relevant stakeholders, AgroCenta rents arable agricultural lands to female smallholder farmers for free. Women are also given seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services and extensive advisory information on farming best practices such as what type of seed to plant, when to plant, how to plant, etc.Decent Work & Economic Growth: we empower smallholder farmers to see agriculture as more than just a way to survive and position it as a viable industry that can be sustainable for their family.
    • hibaerrai
       
      Agrocenta main goals are the following: first and the most evident one no poverty especially for farmers who are not paid enough. second, gender equality and finally economic agricultural development within the country.
  • A great team for sure! Our major strength has been a team made of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences and a deep understanding of the agricultural value chain. This asset allowed us to save a lot of time we would have naturally spent on trying to fine tune and launch the AgroCenta platform. Thanks to that we avoided making the common mistakes many new and unexperienced founders make.
    • ghtazi
       
      what we can understand is that having a great team is the key asset that led to the rapid growth of Agrocenta. cross-cultural team has been a plus for the development of agrocenta. it helped the company to save time and avoid making common mistakes that many new and inexperienced founders make.
  • Many investors are quite held back when it comes to making investments in Africa for an obvious reason: corruption.
mohammed_ab

Electronic Transactions Reshape Egypt's Economy - 3 views

  • The rise of online banking around the world has helped other economies solve these very challenges. Cash, for example, is hard to transport. Coins and bills are prone to theft, and their use makes dodging taxes easier for those so inclined. For individuals who must pay in person, getting across a gridlocked city like Cairo is logistically difficult. Together, these problems can constrain an economy. In Egypt, where 94 percent of all transactions were cash as recently as 2014, such a system stymies economic growth.
  • Fawry is part of a new wave of technology companies ushering Egypt into the digital age. Many of these firms are helping transform industries like banking, health care, and transport, and in the process creating good jobs for young Egyptians, more than 30 percent of whom are unemployed.
  • Sabry, a former salesperson at IBM Egypt, launched Fawry because he knew these issues kept Egypt’s economy from achieving its promise. The early years were lean as the company worked to convince tech-wary Egyptians that Fawry’s systems were secure—and that their money wouldn’t disappear into an electronic void.
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  • “Time is of the essence, and Fawry saves me a lot of it,” says Shawky, who owns three electronics stores in the Egyptian capital.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      Fawry is available for its customers day and night which attracts a large range of people.
  • It was something that Cairo-based shop owner Nader Shawky had come to dread: paying his phone bill. Every month, he trekked to the offices of his mobile provider where he and dozens of others stood in line—sometimes for up to two hours—to settle their bills. It was, he admits, a maddening process.
    • samielbaqqali
       
      By providing online banking financial administrations that allow you to cover your bills, transfer cash, and access a record of your checking account transactions from your internet browser, Fawry makes the life of its clients less difficult. Banking from anywhere, at any time of day or night, makes it a little easier to do anything you do about your finances.
  • Fawry, a fast-growing Cairo-based company that specializes in electronic payments, makes it possible for Shawky to take care of his accounts online.
  • Fawry’s growth has had a profound effect on Egypt’s economy, says Akef el Maghrabi, the vice chairman of Banque Misr, one of Egypt’s biggest banks and an early Fawry partner. “When you eliminate or reduce the reliance on cash, then you fight corruption, you provide convenience, you lower costs, and you grow the economy. [Electronic payments] do a lot of good for the country.”
    • ayachehbouni
       
      With a system that relies mainly on cash transactions, the economy faces too many challenges that stops its growth and development. For instance, cash is hard to transport, coins and bills can easily be stolen, and their use makes dodging taxes and corruption easier.
  • IFC invested $6 million in Fawry in 2013 and helped guide founder Ashraf Sabry and his team as they built their business. Now the 12-year-old company handles 2.5 million transactions a day. In 2018 Fawry processed 40 billion Egyptian pounds (about $2.5 billion) in electronic payments. Earlier in 2019, Fawry became Egypt’s largest financial technology firm to list on the national stock exchange. It now employs 1,600 people.
    • samielbaqqali
       
      By providing online banking financial administrations that allow you to cover your bills, transfer cash, and access a record of your checking account transactions from your internet browser, Fawry makes the life of its clients less difficult. Banking from anywhere, at any time of day or night, makes it a little easier to do anything you do about your finances.
  • As the Fawry network grew, shop owners who installed the system saw significant benefits, too. Fawry’s terminals drew new customers into stores, providing the consumer traffic that is the lifeblood of small shops. Mahmoud El Rawy, a grocery store owner and father of three, can attest to that. His shop struggled until he installed a Fawry payment terminal. “Fawry has had a big impact on my business,” says El Rawy, who now owns three supermarkets. “It helped bring me more customers and it’s why many come to me now.”
  •  
    Fawry is making the life of its customers less difficult by offering online banking financial administrations that empower you to cover your bills, move cash, and access a record of your checking account transactions from your internet browser. Banking from anywhere, at any time of the day or night, makes all what you do with your finances somewhat simpler.
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    Fintech is providing a very fast business and customer are really satisfied with it. I think that fast service is the main objective of Fintechs.
  •  
    Fawri is helping Egyptians in handling their bills online rather than spending hours on this kind of processes if done traditionally.
  •  
    It's interesting to see that Fawry has a positive impact on its customers but also its business partners like small show owners.
nouhaila_zaki

Frontiers | How Risk Profiles of Investors Affect Robo-Advised Portfolios | Artificial ... - 1 views

  • Automated financial advising (robo-advising) has become an established practice in wealth management, yet very few studies have looked at the cross-section of the robo-advisors and the factors explaining the persistent variability in their portfolio allocation recommendations. Using a sample of 53 advising platforms from the US and Germany, we show that the underlying algorithms manage to identify different risk profiles, although substantial variability is evident even within the same investor types' groups. The robo-advisor expertise in a particular asset class seems to play a significant role, as does the geographical location, while the breadth of the offered investment choice (number of portfolios) across the robo-advisors under study does not seem to have an effect.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      Robo-Advisors go way beyond portfolio allocation; they help keep in the company in tact. Investment companies, like EasyEquities, need such expertise to manage all the financial transactions.
  • Given the different attitudes of investors toward digitalization, robo-advising can be segmented into two main sectors. The first one is pure robo-advising, which is completely free from human intervention in the advisory process. This results in considerably lower fees compared to traditional advisory services, attracting lower-income clientele. As reported by Ringe and Ruof (2018), pure RAs charged fees ranging between 0.4% (US market) and 0.8% (European markets), compared to human financial advising costing circa 1–2%. Pure RAs have become quite popular due to their propensity to avoid conflict of interests due to automation. Fisch et al. (2017) highlight that RAs are less exposed to conflict of interests due to their higher independence, smaller bias to recommend actively managed funds that generate commissions as a potential additional expense, more transparent cost structures, lower minimum investment requirements, and 24/7 availability.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt explains how robo-advising works as well as its positive sides. The most interesting one in my opinion would have to be the avoidance of conflict of interests due to automation which could prove to be very useful in a continent (Africa) that is infested with corruption and nepotism.
samiatazi

Our Story - Safaricom - 0 views

  • In the year 2000, we began the Safaricom journey with a view to Transform Lives. Safaricom is one of a small group of about 400 companies across Africa whose annual revenues are more than $1 billion. Many of these companies are pan-African in their operations and are active in increasingly diverse sectors.
  • M-PESA is restoring dignity to thousands of refugees. Through a partnership with the World Food Programme, we are leveraging M-PESA to help more refugees access food, through a product known as Chakula Chap Chap. M-PESA has enabled us to digitize food delivery for over 100,000 households. It has removed the opportunity for corruption by eliminating middle-men, and reduced the cost of distributing relief aid, creating employment and business opportunities for people in refugee camps. This initiative has shown us that our business can help bridge critical gaps for our society.
    • mehdibella
       
      this shows how much M-Pesa is trying to help the much refugees in Kenya by providing the upmost necessities
  • In the year 2000, we began the Safaricom journey with a view to Transform Lives. Safaricom is one of a small group of about 400 companies across Africa whose annual revenues are more than $1 billion. Many of these companies are pan-African in their operations and are active in increasingly diverse sectors.
    • samiatazi
       
      this shows how much M-Pesa is trying to help the much refugees in Kenya by providing the upmost necessities
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