Denis Opudo
The backbone of African economic growth lies mostly in agricultural sector. This is in most of the African countries if not all. Disrupt Africa recently released a report which stated that agri-tech sector received over $19 million within the last two years. The report is named Agrinnovating for Africa: Exploring the African. The report is used to follow the activities of startups in the agri-tech sector in every year. It stated that the sector has a total of 82 startups and the market increased by 110% in the in a span of last the two years.
Nigeria and Kenya are the leading players in the agri-tech sector. These two countries and Ghana account for above 60% of active companies in Africa. Nigerian startups secured funding worth $9.2 million in the first quarter of 2018. According to Gabriella Mulligan co-founder of Disrupt Africa, the report shaded some light on how the African entrepreneurs are disrupting the agricultural sector.
He added that there has been a huge evolution in the agri-tech market in the recent past. This makes it the most interesting sector to engage in Africa currently. Co-founder of Disrupt Africa Tom Jackson said that each person has knowledge on the importance of the agricultural sector within Africa. But it remained one of the sectors that were neglected by tech innovators until recently. He adds that investors have understood in depth the challenges in the sector. They have also realized big opportunities that it has.
eCommerce startups in the industry have the highest share adding to 32.9% of the total startups across the sector. Fintech solutions to farmers, knowledge and information sharing are some of the sub-sectors found in the agric-tech sector.
