Tag: Financial Inclusion
-
What’s the Magic Number? Part 1
Small business financing remains a hot topic. The Obama administration passed a small business bill recently, while policymakers in the UK, concerned by lending, held wide consultations on lending to small business. The banks, who have already seen heavy scrutiny on bonuses and expenditure, have also been criticised for the drop in lending. The depth…
-
Watering the Seeds
At a venture meet-up yesterday I sat in a hot room listening to questions posed to an expert panel on prospects for start-up funding. Having been a capital-raiser for my own business as well as for a variety of entities ranging from SMEs to public sector monopolies, I always found it fascinating how important we…
-
Planting the seeds for African Agribusiness: policy, infrastructure & the supply chain
In 1997 I was in a Southern African country when what would turn out to be the first of a series of colossal blunders against a national economy was launched. At the time, no one could have foreseen how bad things would get. From our perspective, we saw the opportunity to expand production and thus…
-
In some places, it’s still the wild west
Whilst there are areas we would undoubtedly wish to see improved, the relative homogeneity of the banking sector in the UK has its advantages. While I previously complained about the stickiness of bank deposits when trying to move money between institutions, I did not realise how much more we are offered relative to our cousins…
-
Droughts can lead to new wells
2008’s meltdown reset the financial services industry. It caused chaos worldwide and for a short while, it brought the masters of the financial universe down the earth. More importantly for me, it was my catalyst, moving me from a pattern of waiting for the right time, to acting and creating various windows. Opportunities. With primary…
-
Bank deposits can be stickier than you realise
The last time I was in a bank branch was some time ago. I have queued to exchange travellers cheques in small African countries, done the Saturday morning trudge through the lines of my friendly neighbourhood bank in Bombay, and waited for a personal finance advisor (I only wanted to get a chequebook) at my…