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Rwanda Receives Over USD $3 Million to Support Smallholder Farmers
The Government of New Zealand has committed NZD 6.8 million (over Rwf4.8 billion) to support smallholder farmers across Africa, with NZD 4.2 million (about Rwf3 billion) committed to Rwanda from 2020-2023.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- scale, smallholder farmers
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Press Release: TLcom Leads $6 Million Series A in African InsureTech Platform, Pula
Nairobi, Kenya. 25 January 2021. Pula, an African InsureTech service provider startup that specialises in digital and agricultural insurance to derisk millions of smallholder farmers across Africa, has closed a $6mn Series A fundraise. The Series A fund was led by TLcom Capital, with the participation of Women’s World Banking. The new investment will be used to scale up operations in the company’s existing 13 markets across Africa. Currently, Pula has impacted over 4.3mn farmers on the continent and the new funding will also help propel its expansion into Asia to power resilience and profitability for Asian smallholder farmers.
- Source
- Wimbart
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Starsight Gets $10 Million Funding to Expand Solar Power Solutions in Nigeria, Ghana
A Helios and AIIM-backed solar power solutions firm, Starsight Energy, said it has obtained a $10 million financing that would enlarge its current senior debt facility in a bid to scale up its generation capacity and services in the Nigerian and Ghanaian markets.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Nigeria’s Daystar Power Secures US $38 Million Series B Investment Led by IFU
The round was led by the Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), the Danish development finance institution (DFI). IFU is joined by new investors STOA, a French impact infrastructure fund, Proparco, the French DFI, backed by a guarantee from the European Union under the African Renewable Energy Scale-Up facility (ARE Scale-Up) and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, scale
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Press Release: DFC Announces $1 Billion W-GDP 2X Asia Initiative
U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Chief Executive Officer Adam Boehler today announced W-GDP 2X Asia, a commitment to mobilize $1 billion of investment to advance women’s economic empowerment in Asia. Through the initiative, DFC aims to mobilize capital and incentivize action from the private sector to achieve scalable and sustainable impact for economically empowering women in the region. The announcement was made during a virtual event featuring keynote remarks by Boehler and a fireside chat with female entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Press Release: DFC and Rockefeller Foundation Sign MOU to Invest in Solutions to End Energy Poverty
The MOU seeks to achieve economies of scale by bringing together two major initiatives: The Rockefeller Foundation’s Powering an Inclusive Covid-19 Recovery and DFC’s Roadmap for Impact, the agency’s new strategy for maximizing its development impact.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy
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Taking Cold Chains Off-Grid: How Solar Powered Cold Rooms Could Dramatically Reduce Food Waste in Sub-Saharan Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 50% of produce perishes before reaching end customers, largely due to a lack of viable cold chain solutions. Maria Knodt at Energy 4 Impact and Ruth Kimani at CLASP explore how solar-powered cold rooms can address this issue, and highlight some significant technical and business model challenges that could undermine their impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Investing, Technology, Transportation
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Post-Harvest Food Loss Is a Key Driver of Malnutrition: These Innovations Are Tackling the Problem in Indonesia’s Fish Value Chain
Food loss is a major challenge in Indonesia, and loss of fresh fish is a particular problem. An estimated 20 – 29% of fish is lost annually in the domestic supply chain, contributing to high rates of malnutrition and harming livelihoods in the country. As Rahmi Kasri at I-PLAN, GAIN Indonesia explains, inadequate cold chain infrastructure and poor handling practices lie at the heart of this issue. She discusses some promising cold chain, processing and product innovations that are addressing the challenge.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Transportation
