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Exeo Capital Agri-Vie Fund II Attracts Over $100 Million
EXEO Capital, the pan-African private equity investment firm, has announced the first close of the second Agri-Vie Fund, focused on the food and agribusiness sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, after attracting commitments of over $100 million, one third more than the initial target.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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Gates, Mastercard Launch New Platform for Smallholder Farmers
Digital technology has long been touted as the key to helping smallholder farmers around the world overcome barriers that have kept them trapped in poverty, though initial innovations did not always deliver on this promise. Now developers of digital tools for agriculture are trying to refine their offerings, focusing on products that farmers want to use and that align with their priorities. And at the top of that list is getting fair prices for their products.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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MasterCard Thinks Small With Microcommerce Platform in Africa
For some financial-services giants, the next big thing is micro, and unbanked customers are the entry point. The latest example is MasterCard, which is getting into microcommerce in Kenya with the launch of a new mobile platform that lets consumers buy goods with cash, mobile money, or bank transfer using their phones. The service, called 2Kuze, is aimed at Kenyan farmers and their customers and may mark the beginning of a deeper journey into mobile money products.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mastercard Delivering Financial Inclusion: One Small Kenyan Farm At A Time
The problem with building financial inclusion — particularly in a developing world context — is that it is a tough goal to pursue directly. While there isn’t much in the way of disagreement that more should be done to connect the approximately 2.5 billion adults who are totally (or nearly totally) detached from formal financial services, actually implementing a plan that actually makes a difference is often a very separate matter.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Superstrains of Rice That Will Feed A Changing World
“I’m Swamp Girl,” says Indrastuti Rumanti, a bubbly scientist with the Indonesian Center for Rice Research. She’s just ducked out of a lengthy meeting with her fellow rice-heads here in Bogor, but the conference room is not Rumanti’s preferred habitat: She’d rather be mucking about in experimental rice paddies.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- research
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Indian social enterprises have huge potential: British Council report
A majority (53%) of social enterprises in India are focussed on skill development, followed by 30% on education, according to a study on Indian social enterprises relased by the British Council on Thursday.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
- Region
- South Asia
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Indonesia’s farmers to enjoy microloan boon next year
Indonesian farmers can expect to find a micro-credit program specifically designed to fulfill their financing needs next year. On Tuesday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called on his Cabinet to design a micro-credit program specifically designed for the agriculture sector to increase the amount of financing farmers could receive. He acknowledged that the current micro-credit program was too broad.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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Agriculture Entrepreneur from Madagascar wins $25,000 2016 Anzisha Grand Prize for African Youth Entrepreneurship
African Leadership Academy (www.AfricanLeadershipAcademy.org) and The MasterCard Foundation (www.MastercardFdn.org) are pleased to announce Heritiaina Randriamananatahina, 22 year old agriculture entrepreneur from Madagascar, as this year’s winner of the $25,000 Grand Prize in the sixth annual edition of Africa’s premier award for youth entrepreneurship. Heritiaina is the founder of Fiombonana, an agro-processing enterprise that manufactures dairy products and confectioneries using only Malagasy raw materials, employing farmers and providing local job opportunities.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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