By Monica Touesnard, Managing Director, BoP Learning Lab

(This article is also posted on www.NextBillion.org)

By Nitin Rao

By Geoffrey (Kok Heng) See

The Context:

By Jeffrey Gangemi

M. Thanaletchumy is cleaning her small stall outside a block of low-cost apartments where she lives, when two hungry customers come by.

They want idly, or steamed rice cakes, but everything is sold out. It’s late morning in Selayang, Kuala Lumpur, and the 50-year-old single mother has made RM90 from selling roti canai and other snacks.

Microfinance holds the key to unlocking the potential of the Small and Micro Enterprises sector to contribute to Kenya’s economic development and alleviate poverty, a top bank official said.

Mrs Winnie Kathurima, the Change and Corporate Affairs Director of Equity Bank, said SMEs should be well funded in order to contribute effectively to economic growth. “Microfinance is our anchor for economic growth,” said Mrs Kathurima. “It could revolutionise Kenya’s transformation to a developed country status.”

The rest of the world will turn its attention to Nigeria as the biggest payment card event in Africa, the annual International Conference and Exhibition on Cards and Allied Technologies, referred to as CardExpo 2007, hosts avalanche of global and local card payment brands during the three days event.

Zenith Bank, MTN Nigeria, ATM Consortium, Visa, Valucard and other world-class companies have supported the event through comprehensive sponsorships. The show commences July 9 to 11 at the prestigious Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

In February 2005, I applied to be part of the team to test the BoP Protocol™ in Kenya with S C Johnson. I came to Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management to shift my career from management and strategy consulting towards sustainable enterprise. I was focused on developing the skills and experience necessary to help companies towards financial, social and environmental sustainability.