Econet founder and executive chairman, Strive Masiyiwa together with his wife Tsitsi have launched a $100 million Challenge Fund as part of their extensive philanthropic work in Zimbabwe. They launched this fund to support rural businesses and other entrepreneurs that focus on rural areas in the country. 1.25 percent of the fund will be set aside for Matabeleland while women will get a minimum of 50 percent. The minimum loan will be $1,000 while the maximum is $10,000, traditional businesses like stores and grinding mills will not be eligible. No collateral is required and the maximum interest is 5 percent. This a great initiative for Zimbabweans!
Next On the Big 5, we have news that Ingressive Capital, a company that leverages on their network to assist startups with growth and scale has called on Sub-Saharan African based Tech Startups entrepreneurs to apply for up to 50-100 thousand USD investment. They will follow on funding with their own investor base. They are looking for post-launch founders with great products to grow and scale through business development, partnerships and financial support. Interested? Apply here
Moving on, Azuri technologies in conjunction with FBN is about to supply off-grid solar power to Nigerians. The Azuri solar home product will be co-marketed by Azuri and FBN. This partnership is to bring modern financial and digital services to rural customers. It will also enable pay-as-you-go customers make transactions through FBN FirstMonie agents and mobile solutions. Nigeria’s grid-electricity under supply is discouraging and this restricts modernization and local development and the Azuri solar power is looking to tackle this problem. This is great news for Nigeria.
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the government is going to set up four Digital Hubs in four township provinces. He said the program will be made up of 51 technology business incubators. The hub is expected to provide entrepreneurial services to small and medium business enterprises in rural areas.
Finally on the Big 5 Daily, African Development Bank (AFDB) has partnered with South Korea to increase technology transfer to Africa. The aim of the partnership is to introduce drone technology to develop agriculture alongside data collection and analysis, land degradation, biodiversity, aquifers, monitoring irrigated perimeters, the effects of climate change etc. and all agricultural production. AFDB hopes that the partnership matures into capacity building training, so that Africa can industrialize. The business option of this partnership goes beyond agriculture to smart urban transportation management, green growth and other numerous business opportunity.
… and that’s it for the Big 5 Daily, thanks for joining us.