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Aligning Capital with Justice: How Innovative Finance Can Enable the Final Stretch Toward Energy Access in Africa
The world has made unprecedented progress toward universal energy access, and today over 90% of the global population has electricity. But as Roeland Menger at Nithio explains, the remaining 10% live in rural and low-income communities — primarily in Africa — that typical business and funding models can't reach. He argues that the exclusion of these markets is not only ineffective but unjust, and highlights several innovative investment approaches that are expanding decentralized energy to the last mile.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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A Field-Based Perspective on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Agriculture Crisis: Exploring the Four Critical Dimensions that are Driving Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is no longer just a humanitarian concern in sub-Saharan Africa: It is a business issue. According to Asamoah Oppong Zadok, a researcher and entrepreneur specializing in sustainable agriculture, it constitutes a fundamental business risk with far-reaching implications for the region's economic growth, supply chain stability and geopolitical resilience. He explores the multifaceted structural factors that are driving Africa's agriculture and food security crisis, exploring how business innovators, funders and policymakers can respond.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
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Kenya Invites Bids for Rural Broadband Rollout Under $390 Million Digital Economy Project
The entire procurement process will be managed under the World Bank's stringent governance framework to assure international bidders of a level playing field.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Designing Digital Health Tools for the Last Mile: Lessons for Maximizing Connectivity, Usability and Trust
Digital health has become a promising approach for improving healthcare access in under-resourced communities. But as Kaumudi Tiwari at Zonka Feedback explains, bringing healthcare to the “last mile” isn’t just about overcoming the challenges of physical distance. It’s about navigating poor network coverage, language mismatches, lack of trust in digital systems, and tools that don’t align with local workflows or realities. She shares four critical lessons from digital health deployments in Africa and Asia that underscore why some digital health tools succeed in the last mile, while others stall.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Boehringer Ingelheim Invests in Kasha Global to Expand Women’s Health Access in Africa
Kasha Global operates a distribution model designed to reach underserved populations where 52% of Africans lack access to necessary healthcare.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Connected Power: Ensuring Africa is Not Left in the Dark — or Offline
Sub-Saharan Africa has both the highest energy access and digital connectivity gaps in the world. As Ravi Suchak at Helios Towers explains, this is due not to a lack of demand, but to fundamental infrastructure barriers: Telecom towers and mobile networks require a reliable power supply, which is often absent or prohibitively expensive in rural areas, and electricity providers need consistent demand to de-risk rural energy investments. He explores a solution that addresses both of these needs: "connected power," a development approach that aligns energy and telecom infrastructure by positioning telecom towers as anchor customers for electrification projects.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology, Telecommunications
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Private Sector Developers Sign Funding Agreement to Fast-Track Rural Electrification in Zambia
This round of funding will stimulate and incentivize end-use demand for energy supplied by 43 existing and new mini-grids across Zambia, bringing reliable and affordable energy to underserved areas.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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EU-Funded AgriFI Backs Ghana’s Complete Farmer with $2.5 Million Investment to Empower Smallholder Farmers
This funding, channeled through the EDFI Management Company, aims to bolster the company’s expansion strategy and facilitate the development of agricultural infrastructure in northern Ghana.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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