Walid Battal
During this year 2024, the AgTech sector in Africa has seen a growing interest, marked by an increase in investments. Indeed, $26.3 million was raised in January 2024, demonstrating the growing interest in digital solutions for agriculture. This enthusiasm benefits startups like “ThriveAgric” in Nigeria or “DigiCow“, a Kenyan digital dairy farm, which modernizes small dairy farms with advanced digital tools. Innovative platforms such as Mastercard’s “Farm Pass” now connect more than one million smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa. It also shows the impact of digitalization in facilitating access to markets.
Africa’s agriculture market could be worth $1 trillion by 2030 thanks to its 60% unused arable land and growing demand for food. This could potentially attract significant funding for smart technologies such as solar irrigation and drought-tolerant seeds. At the same time, AgTech in Africa is proving to be a catalyst not only for food security, but also for the continent’s economic growth, reaching millions of farmers in an increasingly digitalized economy.
Thus, AgTech innovation hubs are multiplying across the continent, supporting young startups through mentorship programs, funding and technical resources. Structures such as MEST in Ghana and the Co-Creation Hub in Nigeria are at the forefront of this transformation, catalyzing the growth of a new generation of agricultural solutions.