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Press Release: OPEC Fund Supports Post-COVID-19 African Infrastructure With $50 Million Loan to Africa Finance Corporation
The OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) have signed a $50 million loan agreement to help finance and build infrastructure needed for Africa’s post-COVID recovery. This represents the first direct financing co-operation between the two institutions.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Female-Led Startups Dominate Catalyst Fund’s Inclusive Fintech 2021 Cohort
Catalyst Fund, a global accelerator managed by BFA Global, announced the 8th cohort for its Inclusive Fintech Program today.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Nigeria’s Cowrywise Raises $3 Million Pre-Series a to Scale Its Wealth Management Platform
Cowrywise, a Nigerian fintech startup that offers digital wealth management and financial planning solutions, has raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding. Quona Capital led the round as Tsadik Foundation, Gumroad CEO Sahil Lavingia, and a syndicate of Nigerian angel investors locally and in the diaspora participated. The company previously raised more than $500,000 through a combination of equity financing and grants.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- financial inclusion, fintech, scale, startups
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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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Report: Transition to Electric Motorbikes Could Save Rwanda Rwf9 Billion Annually
The Government of Rwanda is engaging partners and private sector to promote e-mobility that could see phased adoption of electric buses, private cars and motorcycles with a goal to reduce conventional vehicle sales, transport fuel imports which are associated with gas emissions.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: USD 127 Million Social Impact Securitization Vehicle for off-Grid Solar Sector in Kenya
BLK1 has increased the size of its local currency receivable financing facility for d.light’s Kenyan business to USD 127 million with an additional USD 15 million of senior debt from Norfund.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Christensen Institute, MIT Legatum Center Launch Bootcamp for African Innovators
The Clayton Christensen Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank based in Boston and Silicon Valley in the United States, has announced a collaboration with the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship aimed at empowering early-stage entrepreneurs in seven African countries to create new economic growth engines. The new collaboration, called Market-creating Innovation (MCI) Bootcamp, aims to bridge the gap between emerging market entrepreneurs and market-creating innovation opportunities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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These Investors Want to Back ‘Ridiculously Early’ Female-Led African Startups
In 2019, female-led companies received less than 5 percent of the global venture capital. Bringing it to Africa, only 10 percent of the West African startups that cumulatively raised $1 million had at least one female co-founder in the past decade.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- startups
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