Browsing: Agritech

Africa’s agritech potential is immense. Agriculture can help solve various issues, including food security, poverty reduction, and economic transformation. However, technology is needed to revolutionise agriculture and solve farming and agricultural challenges.…

• In 2015, BFA Global launched the Catalyst Fund to support and manage early-stage inclusive fintech startups.
• Assuraf is an African startup that attempts to deal with the harmful norms of insurance coverage within the content.
• Located in Kenya, Octavia is one of the twenty companies building DAC technology globally.

Catalyst Fund, a pre-seed VC fund and a startup accelerator in Africa, recently announced that 10 African startups had been accepted within their program. The Fund has announced a $2 million investment in the startups that are building and improving Africa’s ecosystem.

BFA Global launched the Catalyst Fund in 2015 to support early-stage inclusive fintech startups. The Fund offers affordable, accessible and appropriate digital financial solutions.

Despite focusing its reach among African innovators, it still has a global viewpoint. Initially, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and fiscal sponsorship from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors baked up the pre-seed …

Activists and agriculture lobbyist have already protested the move by the government to lift the 10-year ban on GM foods. A joint statement signed by Greenpeace Africa and lobbyist groups argued that, “food security is not just about the amount of food, but the quality and safety. Our cultural and indigenous foods have proved to be safer, with diverse nutrients and with less harmful chemical inputs.”

Lobbyists insist that public participation could have taken place, prior to lifting the ban; and are championing for its reinstatement. Furthermore, they are advocating for an inclusive participatory process to be instituted or a taskforce onboarded, to investigate long-term and sustainable solutions to attain food security.

The move has elicited divergent views across the region. Tanzania is firmly opposed to the use of biotechnology in food production, and considering its proximity to Kenya, has upgraded its vigilance to ensure GM food or cash crops …

Inarguably, agriculture is the mainstay in most African economies, contributing an average of 30 to 60 per cent of GDP; 30 per cent of the value of exports and providing employment, to about two-thirds of the continent’s working population.  

According to McKinsey and Company, more than 60 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa are smallholder farmers. In cognizance, of the pivotal role played by agriculture in the continent, the African Union (AU) declared 2014 as the Year of Agriculture and Food Security; stimulating leaders to treat agriculture not only as a viable solution to eradicate poverty and hunger but also as a major contributor to economic development deserving of massive investments.  

However, in stark contrast, the current drought pertinently in the Horn of Africa only highlights the peak of the continent’s food insecurity, as at least 18.4 million people are facing high levels of acute food insecurity and …

The agricultural sector is considered one of the most critical industries for the African continent due to its economic potential. There has been significant growth in the past two decades leading to a level of production three times higher than before, and the sector is projected to become a US$1trillion industry in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. However, despite this increase, the African continent is still a net importer of agricultural commodities to meet its population’s basic food needs. 

Nearly 600 million hectares of uncultivated arable land is in Africa; this shows that there is a lot of untapped potential in African Agribusiness. 

Boosting Agriculture Through Technology 

The application of technological innovations in Agribusiness is vital in sustainably boosting productivity, increasing profits, and ensuring food security in the continent and beyond.

Mobile Phones

The foremost benefit of using mobile phones is as a platform for exchanging information through calls, SMS, or …

It is with great joy and pride to say Africa is mounting the digitalization hill and none of the 54 countries seems to tire of the climb. From the emergence of mobile money in East Africa to the use of drone technology in monitoring farmland activities in Ghana, all seem as ground-breaking as the other digital operations executed in Africa.

Through the years East Africa has seen a surge in fintech exceeding expectations; services such as M-Pawa in Tanzania, M-Shwari and M-Pesa in Kenya (offered by  Vodacom Tanzania and Safaricom Kenya respectively) has not only digitalized financing en masse for the unbanked but enabled digitalization in East Africa to soar to new heights.…

The 2020 edition of the AfDB Agripitch contest for African agricultural entrepreneurs kicked off on 2 November 2020. The competition pits young entrepreneurs with a focus on agriculture, dubbed Agripreneurs. 

The contestants will exhibit startups plans from their respective businesses in an attempt to win seed funds up to a total of $120 000 as well as mentoring and training opportunities. 

The prize money will be shared by the different winners of each category. Two of the categories are broken down according to the stage of the business with one category featuring early startups, the other for the mature startup phase. The third category is reserved for women empowered businesses.

The Agripitch competition will run in two segments including a series of webinars and a boot camp for selected entrepreneurs. The boot camp will see the business owner receive training on a number of key business shares including product development, …

Salesforce Ventures has announced a second impact investment fund amounting to $100 million dollars. Salesforce Ventures is the investment arm of Salesforce, a company involved in customer relationship management. The fund is the second to come from the company after an initial $50 million impact fund which was launched in 2017.

The funds are earmarked for supporting start-up companies mainly in the technology sphere and cloud-related services. Within this grouping, the focus on the fund is on companies showing a measurable impact on social arenas such as education. The funds also serve start-ups with an environmental impact.

Salesforce ventures drive to promote values of sustainability and social responsibility is expected to see it investing in companies that provide solutions to the challenges affecting the world. Acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the challenges impacting the world including COVID-19, climate change, and racial injustice, Salesforce Ventures said it will continue to invest …

The UK-based development finance institution and impact investor, CDC, invested $40 million dollars into Liquid Telecom. The deal is part of an equity arrangement initially structured in 2018 when the CDC made a $180 million dollar transaction. 

The investment will fund the expansion of Liquid Telecoms, Africa Data Centres with the aim of positioning the company as the top data center operation in Africa.

Data centers reduce costs for businesses by offering affordable data storage. In addition, the development of software as a service (Saas) applications will spur innovation and increased activities in start-ups as it allows for improved delivery of software such as office software, payroll processing, collaboration tools, and human resource management among others. 

Liquid Telecom is a communications solutions provider that offers independent fiber, data centers, and cloud technology. It operates across sub-Saharan Africa with a footprint in 13 countries. The company has built the largest fiber …

Heading into the future, the current farm-to-factory or farm-to-market processes which are expensive will be eliminated.…