There is probably no single sector with as much influence on sub-Saharan Africa’s future as agriculture. As of 2022, it employed more than half of the region’s labor force. However, the continent is still plagued by low yields, and is home to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. Moreover, the sector is constrained by highly fragmented value chains, a large agricultural finance gap and limited value addition (i.e., the processing of raw crops into higher value products), among other factors. Agriculture and food systems could be the engine of the continent’s inclusive economic growth ..read more

Stanford University recently released a new study that looked at various poverty measurement approaches in order to understand how measurement impacts poverty alleviation. It’s common knowledge that public, private, non-profit and international development organizations all need to measure poverty in order to inform their operations. But these researchers found that not only are the measurement tools used by these organizations vastly different, the way that they each define poverty, impacting who qualifies for aid, is also vastly different. The study found almost no agreement among the four m ..read more

There’s an unfortunate reality at the heart of the discussion on climate justice: Investments aimed at building the resilience of climate-vulnerable communities are falling woefully short — and the private sector is almost entirely absent, with just a 2% share of these investments. The UN’s Adaptation Gap Report finds that the amount of investment needed for developing countries to adapt to the changing and uncertain climate is 10-18 times greater than what is currently flowing, creating an estimated annual adaptation finance gap of US $194 to $366 billion. Innovative approaches are clearly ne ..read more

For many years, Adam Smith’s metaphor of the “Invisible Hand,” as expressed in “The Wealth Of Nations,” was the best illustration of the thinking behind free market ideology. This ideology holds that in a market free from government interference, unseen forces like the interplay between supply and demand will result in a natural flow of trade and fluctuation of prices that will fulfil society’s collective interests. This vision is based on the concept of individuals as purely rational beings, well-informed of their options and capable of making sound financial choices based on those options. O ..read more

Africa’s e-commerce landscape is in the midst of an ongoing revolution, and the opportunities it presents are nothing short of transformational. This revolution is driven by the growth in internet access across the continent, since borders have become less of an obstacle and African businesses can now sell and compete globally.  ANKA is playing a key role in this transformation, leveraging “Software as a Service” (SaaS) innovation to connect businesses with consumers, simplify payments and revolutionise logistics to support African e-commerce — not just on the continent, but worldwide. We ..read more

India’s economic landscape is undergoing a significant shift, with small businesses — especially women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) — emerging as pivotal drivers of growth. This transition marks a departure from the dominance of large corporations, and it emphasizes the importance of inclusive economic development. According to an IFC report, the MSME sector contributes substantially to India’s GDP, employment and exports, underscoring its growing significance. This shift not only fosters overall economic progress, it also promotes gender equality and social inclusion. About ..read more

In rural fishing communities in Nigeria, lack of access to grid electricity forces fishers to rely on traditional methods of storage for their catch, like sun-drying, salting and smoking. These limitations force them to quickly sell their fish at low prices — and they still lose up to 20% of their catch from spoilage. Across the country, farmers face similar problems in crop production and livestock rearing. Like these farmers and fisherfolk, over 90 million Nigerians lack access to electricity from the main grid and another 30 million get less than four hours of grid electricity per day (as o ..read more

We stand at the precipice of a transformation in our interaction with financial services. This transformation is driven by the fact that, despite notable technological advancements — especially with the rise of digital banking — financial services are still plagued by significant inefficiencies. These inefficiencies take two primary forms. Firstly, there are a number of frictions within the back-end systems that enable financial service delivery, marked by cumbersome manual processes and a lack of seamless communication between these systems and the various financial services offered by an ins ..read more

In May, the World Health Assembly — the decision-making body of the World Health Organization — will have its 77th annual meeting. At this year’s meeting, delegations from WHO member states will discuss and agree upon a plan to respond to future pandemics. As we reflect on these last four years of the global response to COVID-19 — and previously, the Ebola response in West Africa, among others — it is clear that countries (especially developing countries) and development sector funders need to put in place financing frameworks to support both general and disease-specific emergency response pla ..read more

For those of us who have reliable access to energy, it is easy to forget exactly how transformative that technology is, or how far its benefits extend into our daily lives. But nearly everything that makes it possible for us to live safely and with dignity — from healthcare and education to food security and personal safety — relies fundamentally on energy. That is why we at Open Capital have spent more than a decade working intensively with businesses, investors, development partners and governments in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) toward the goal of universal energy access. But in this time, we h ..read more