Kenya Archives - Page 3 of 11 - AfricaBusiness.com

It’s time to demystify Intellectual Property in Kenyan innovation

31Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

It’s time to demystify Intellectual Property in Kenyan innovation

by Sheilah Birgen, Country Lead for Kenya at Innovate UK KTN Global Alliance Africa. With a relatively stable macroeconomic environment, sustained investor confidence, and a fast-expanding services sector, Kenya has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa and the largest in the East African region by way of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)[1]. To maintain its lead, the Kenyan government is looking to technology and innovation as a strategic driver of new business development, job creation, and socio-economic growth. Considered one of Africa’s ‘Big Four’ innovation ecosystems, Kenya has made good progress in this regard, registering 250% growth year-on-year between 2020 - 2021 in terms of startup funding raised[2]. However, to maximise the impact potential of startups and in...

Climate change and drought in Northern Kenya

27Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Kenya News

Climate change and drought in Northern Kenya

Onyango Rachael Kenya is among the least contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide but still bears the brunt of climate change. A third consecutive below-average rainfall is negatively affecting food availability and access for women, men, and children in 20 of the 23 arid and semi-arid land (ASAL) counties. According to the National Drought Management Authority’s (NDMA) October 2022 report, 4.35 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance. 942,000 children aged 6-59 months are acutely malnourished and 134,000 cases of pregnant or lactating women are acutely malnourished and need treatment. How did we get here? As far back as November 2021, the Famine Early Warning System Network issued an alert on the imminent drought in the Horn of Africa, should the poor rainfal...

5Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Agriculture, Kenya News, Tech

Cross-sector innovation presents solutions to combat Kenya’s long-standing False Codling Moth challenge

False Codling Moth (FCM), also known as Thaumatotibia leucotreta is currently causing havoc in various chilli farms in Kenya, eating into the farmers’ profits [1]. It has also emerged as a major constraint to the production of horticultural crops in the country and is currently the leading cause of interceptions of Capsicum and cut flowers exported to the European Union [2]. This has a huge knock-on effect on the country’s economy as it is highly dependent on the agricultural sector. In an effort to remedy the FCM challenge faced by thousands of Kenyan farmers the Innovation Exchange (iX) challenge competition, delivered by Innovate UK KTN Global Alliance Africa supported Flamingo Horticulture International, which grows chillies within the several regions in Kenya, to identify innovative ...

Tushop Raises $3M to Scale Community Group-Buying in Kenya

31Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Kenya News, Startups

Tushop Raises $3M to Scale Community Group-Buying in Kenya

Tushop, the Kenyan social-commerce platform that enables communities in Nairobi to buy groceries more cheaply with free delivery, has secured $3M in a pre-seed funding round, led by 4DX Ventures and with participation from JAM Fund, Breyer Capital, Chandaria Capital, TO Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, FirstCheck Africa, and DFS Lab. Wasoko (formerly Sokowatch) also joined to make their first strategic institutional investment into Tushop, signalling confidence in the team’s ability to capture the community group-buying opportunity in Africa. The oversubscribed round included additional participation from a number of angel investors including GB (CEO, Flutterwave), Raja Kaul (President, Sundial Group), Eli Pollak (CEO, Apollo Agriculture), and Ida Mannoh (Director of Growth, Chipper Cash...

9Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Startups

AUDA-NEPAD, JICA, Afreximbank & BCG Empower Accelerator Cohort Of Five Successful East African Healthcare Companies

This is off the back of the Home-Grown Solutions (HGS) Accelerator for Pandemic Resilience, an initiative that aims to accelerate the growth of African healthcare companies to strengthen the continent’s pandemic resilience The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) held an event to congratulate 5 burgeoning start-ups who are shaping East Africa's healthcare sector and announce both a publication on healthcare entrepreneurship in Africa and the opening of applications for next year’s Accelerator cohort. H.E. Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki said,” Infectious diseases remain a great threat to Africa’s aspiration to achieve its 2063 developmental blueprint: ‘‘Agenda 2...

3Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Energy, Green Energy, Kenya News

A Just Transition to Climate Resilience Could Transform Kenya into a Green Powerhouse

The Continent Is Highly Vulnerable to Climate Change, However, and Needs Significant Global Investment to Adapt to Higher Temperatures, Build Low-Carbon Economies, and Create Local Green Employment African countries face major climate-related challenges, but at the same time they have the opportunity to achieve sustainable low-carbon economies, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled “Building a Climate-Resilient, Low-Carbon, Job-Rich Africa,” identifies particular disadvantages that countries on the continent must overcome but also their potential to become a model for transforming a power system based on fossil fuels to one based on renewables. Although Africa was responsible for only 4% of global CO2 emissions in 2019, it accounts for 35 of the 5...

12Nov

By Josephine WawiraNo Comments

Kenya News

Messing with nature is risky business!

For a long time now, economy and the conservation of biodiversity seemed to be two different worlds. Not many CEOs or financial managers were able to explain how their company’s impact contributed to the loss of species, deforestation or the acidification of oceans. But times have changed. Today, trailblazing entrepreneurs understand that they don’t have to be biologists to recognize the correlation between nature and the economy. In simple terms; on a dead planet, there would be no thriving business. Biodiversity is on the verge of collapse The more we know about nature, the clearer it dawns to us that messing with nature is risky business. Take these instances: We cut down trees to make wood products for sale. In turn, deforestation destroys our essential ecosystem services; and we...

12Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Startups

Failing To Win

A new book from Burnet Media, Cape Town will inspire and guide the next generation of African entrepreneurs. Failing To Win by Mike Quinn is the authentic story of a uniquely African startup at the forefront of the continent’s fintech revolution. Inspired to become the “M-Pesa of southern Africa” after Kenya’s pioneering mobile money innovation, Zoona secured tens of millions of dollars in international investment and grew to serve two-million customers in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique while processing $2.5-billion in transactions. This is an ideal read for anyone doing business or investing in Africa, and in particular for purpose-driven entrepreneurs and impact or venture capital investors. ABOUT THE BOOK In 2009, Canadian entrepreneur Mike Quinn packed his backpack and moved to Lu...

9Nov

By Krima DesaiNo Comments

Kenya News

Kenya Still Faces Challenges in Sending 100% of Students to High School

Kenya has long aimed to bring 100 percent of its primary students to high school. Over one million Kenyan students finished their primary school education in 2020, and all are expected to attend high school, but many factors continue to hold these students back. Many Kenyan parents are unable to pay for the school fees and many students must travel long distances just to get to their schools. The government has helped solve some of these challenges through partnerships with private sector businesses for education funding and eradicating poverty by empowering local communities. Many tuition fees are also waived for secondary schools. But parents still must pay for meals, transportation, uniforms and other things necessary for learning, and many Kenyan communities still have cultural tra...

31Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Energy, Ethiopia News, Kenya News

Underwriting facility set to energise geothermal development in Kenya and Ethiopia

FSD Africa, the UK Government’s flagship financial sector programme in Africa, and Parhelion, a UK-based specialist energy and climate risk finance advisory company, have today announced plans to launch a first-of-its-kind underwriting facility, backed by East African insurers, to de-risk early-stage development of geothermal energy projects with the capacity to significantly expand electricity access and energy sector resilience in Kenya and Ethiopia. The need The energy sectors in Kenya and Ethiopia face several systemic issues: Large numbers of people continue to live without electricity — 12.5 million in Kenya and 42 million in Ethiopia are still unconnected. Growth in energy demand is outstripping supply — Kenya’s power demand is growing 20% faster than GDP, while recent a...