SEATTLE — The African Growth and Opportunity (AGOA) Act Forum concluded in Lomé, Togo on August 10 without resolving tensions between the U.S. and the nations of the East African Community (EAC). The free trade deal between the U.S. and African countries, in effect until 2025, is endangered by recent economic stimulus policies enacted in the EAC. The EAC consists of Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and South Sudan. The group, as part of its EAC Vision 2050 and Industrialization Policy, aims to increase its manufacturing industry from 8.7 percent of GDP in 2016 to 25 percent of GDP in…
Author: Katherine Parks
Katherine Parks
Katherine writes for The Borgen Project from New York City, NY. Her academic interests include the political economy with a focus on socioeconomic inequality in the US. Katherine studied art history at the Sorbonne in Paris for a semester.
DHAKA – In 2011, BRAC Bank launched Bangladesh’s first mobile financial service provider, bKash Limited. Today, bKash mobile banking benefits more than 24 million customers, most of whom now have access to a banking system in Bangladesh for the first time. Bangladesh remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with 31.5 percent of the population living below the poverty line in 2010. Little more than one-third of Bangladeshis live in urban centers. Traditional brick-and-mortar banks have a limited capacity to service the rural population, and bank fees are often an insurmountable cost to the average worker. Banking facilities are concentrated…