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Three Questions for Five African Businesses: Insights from Sankalp Africa Summit’s ‘Enterprise Showcase’
The recent Sankalp Africa Summit featured an “Enterprise Showcase” where up-and-coming African businesses shared information about their work and missions. NextBillion interviewed five of these entrepreneurs and company representatives, asking each of them three questions: What are the main challenges you’re facing in running your business? What kind of support would help you overcome these challenges? And what’s one thing you wish funders understood about your business needs? Their responses reveal some of the innovative approaches and key issues that are emerging in Africa’s vibrant ecosystem of small and medium-sized enterprises.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise, Transportation, WASH
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Press Release: Sistema.Bio Raises $53 Million to Launch FarmCarbon—An Innovative Funding Vehicle Aimed at Expanding Climate Finance for Smallholder Farmers and Accelerating Methane Mitigation
FarmCarbon will facilitate financing for more than 90,000 Sistema.bio digesters on farms worldwide to capture and destroy methane, creating emissions reductions of over 9 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Global
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Uganda’s Zigoti Secures $1 Million Funding From Sahel Capital to Support Smallholder Farmers
Zigoti sources its coffee beans from a network of more than 4,000 smallholder farmers, providing not only a stable market for their harvests but also offering a range of extension services, training programmes, and value-added support aimed at improving crop quality and farmer livelihoods.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Western AI Models “Fail Spectacularly” in Farms and Forests Abroad
Big Tech’s AI tools trained on Western data often can’t recognize local crops, forests, or farming conditions without adaptation to local environments, and there is a risk that a focus on profit by big tech firms and large agriculture companies will hurt farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: Smartphones, Women’s Rights and Coupons: New Trends That Can Boost Insurance for African Farmers
Storms, drought, floods and heatwaves are a disaster for small scale farmers in Africa, who can’t all afford insurance. Yet new, technologically advanced and cheaper types of agricultural insurance exist and could be rolled out across Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Big Tech ‘Leave Poor Farmers Sidelined’ In AI Revolution
The report published Wednesday by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) highlights how tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Alibaba are shaping the future of farming through cloud platforms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, attracting substantial public and private investment.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Tech Firms and AI Farming Tools ‘Playing With the Food System’, Warns Thinktank
Google, Microsoft and Amazon among companies using algorithms and AI to influence what crops are grown and how, say critics.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Global
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Analysis: Solar Brings Long-Awaited Water to Ethiopian Farmers
In 2024, WRI and DanChurchAid (DCA) conducted an extensive feasibility study in Berbere. The goal was to identify solutions that could boost agricultural productivity, farmer incomes and food security simultaneously.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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