Category: Sustainable Development

Why Do African SMEs Still Avoid External Finance—Even When It’s Available?

On By In Africa, Financing, Research Spotlight, SMEs, Sustainable Development, Urban systems

You are running a small, family-owned business in a bustling African city. This business was built from scratch by you through hard work and by reinvesting all your profits. Today, your business needs funding to break into new markets, and you recently heard that new government reforms have made it easier to access loans. Banks are more open, paperwork is simpler, and funding is finally within reach. But you don’t apply. Why?

This is the paradox at the heart of SME finance in Africa: access is improving, but uptake remains stubbornly low. A new study led by NUSC colleague Dr. Andrew Hansen-Addy, with Prof. Mario Davide Parrilli and Dr. Ishmael Tingbani, dives deep into this puzzle—revealing why increased access to finance doesn’t always lead to more borrowing, and what that means for SME policy, resilience, and growth.

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Image of seaweed coffee cup lid

Leading the Change: How Corporate Leadership Drives Eco-Innovation

On By In Eco-Innovation, Environmental, Green, Innovation, Machine Learning, Research Spotlight, Sustainable Development, Systems Dynamics, Systems Thinking

Imagine a startup that creates edible packaging made from seaweed. You buy a takeaway coffee, and instead of a plastic lid, it’s sealed with a biodegradable, tasteless seaweed film (Product innovation). You can toss it in the compost—or eat it.

Now scale that up: this packaging replaces millions of plastic wrappers in supermarkets. It dissolves in water, leaves no microplastics, and is made from a fast-growing, carbon-sequestering marine plant (Process innovation). The company partners with coastal communities to harvest seaweed sustainably, creating jobs and restoring marine ecosystems (Social impact).

This is eco-innovation in action.

It’s not just clever—it’s transformative.

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