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Financing the Future: How Off-Balance-Sheet Special Purpose Vehicles Could Fund Africa’s Cleantech Transition
Across Africa, founders are tackling some of the world’s most difficult development challenges with cleantech solutions that require significant capital expenditure. But according to Julia Lawson-Johns, and Amar Inamdar at KawiSafi Ventures, beneath this wave of innovation lies a capital architecture that is still too shallow to enable the scale these firms now require. They argue that off-balance-sheet financing via special-purpose vehicles could provide cleantech enterprises with an alternative means of securing upfront liquidity to finance growth, and explore how these vehicles could power Africa’s cleantech transition.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Investing, Transportation
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Analysis: AI Offers Promise for Agriculture, but Smallholder Farmers Risk Being Left Behind
Precision tools lift yields in rich countries, but without finance, training and data rights, small farmers in poorer regions may miss out.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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WFP and Government of Nepal Launch Innovation Accelerator for Climate and Food Security
The accelerator supports local start-ups to pilot and scale solutions across the food system, including solar-powered irrigation and clean energy solutions, digital advisory platforms for farmers, satellite-based insurance and climate data tools and market and value chain innovations for smallholders.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Cascador Pitch Day 2026: Over $5 Million Deployed to Seven Transformative & Impactful Entrepreneurs In Nigeria
Cascador’s ScaleUp Program works with an elite cohort of entrepreneurs to strengthen leadership, sharpen strategy, and prepare founders to scale sustainably.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Miller Center Capital Backs Manikstu Agro to Expand Goat Farming Livelihoods in Rural India
The catalytic loan will help scale government-subsidized livestock units for smallholder farming households.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- lending, scale, smallholder farmers
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Analysis: A Nigerian Teen Is Turning Agricultural Waste Into Biodegradable Sanitary Pads
Auwal-Panti’s project was selected in a shortlist of 35 global teams for the 2026 Earth Prize, organized by the Earth Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit that empowers, educates and inspires young people to tackle environmental challenges.
- Categories
- Agriculture, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Development Bank and Ecobank Centrafrique Sign €5 Million Trade Guarantee Facility to Support Industrialisation
The facility will strengthen Ecobank Centrafrique’s capacity to support small and medium-sized enterprises and industries by securing foreign trade financing, facilitating trade, and supporting economic growth.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ecobank, Proparco Partner to Mobilise €300 Million for Agriculture, Women-Led Businesses in Africa
Under the arrangement, Proparco Groupe AFD will provide financial instruments, including partial portfolio guarantees, co-financing, and trade finance support, to help Ecobank Group increase lending to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises across 33 African countries.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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