Savannah Fund, a pan-African venture capital firm, announced a $25 million fund as it looks to fund more early-stage startups on the continent.

Led by Mbwana Alliy and Paul Bragiel, Savannah Fund has supported more than 30 startups since 2012.

Some of its notable investments include South African car subscription company: FlexClub, Nigerian fintech company: Lidya, and Kenyan on-demand logistics company: Sendy.

There is an immediate need to address the widening energy access gap impacting vulnerable populations in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whopping 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, said a new report published by NORCAP and Boston Consulting Group.

Widening Energy Gap

Despite new capacity additions, energy poverty is likely to persist beyond 2030, as fast population growth outpaces efforts to increase access, the report said.

The energy gap between Africa and the rest of the world is also widening. As per the report, it will take another 60 years to achieve universal access.

Sub-Saharan Africa – Most Vulnerable Region

Sub-Saharan African countries face the most extreme humanitarian, development, and peace crises, as well as the most severe energy challenges.

The situation is particularly amplified in Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Uganda, where each country hosts over 1 million persons of concern and less than 50% of the population has access to electricity.

Displaced Populations Critically Exposed

Africa disproportionately represents about 33% of the global displaced population, with over 25 million displaced persons.

Roughly 90% of these displaced populations lack sufficient access to energy, including the large majority lacking any access to electricity.

Triple Nexus Approach: Humanitarian-Development-Peace

It is a framework that envisions stronger collaboration and coordination among humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors towards jointly defining Collective Outcomes.

It should be mentioned here that “Collective Outcomes” are the concrete and measurable results to be achieved over a period of three to five years in order to reduce people’s acute and chronic vulnerabilities and increase their resilience.

Solution: Rapid Deployment of Solar Developments

Securing energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa for the 22 million displaced persons lacking electricity, needs to be addressed through a combination of different technologies and solutions.

Solar is advantaged over conventional energy sources, not only due to lower costs but also due to its flexibility to be deployed at different levels of scale.

World Organisation for Animal Health and FAO of the UN have launched a joint project for the global control of African Swine Fever.

“A disease that may kill every pig it infects and for which there is no effective vaccine can be eradicated if more countries continue to work together to limit its spread,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

🆕@OIEAnimalHealth & @FAO launched a joint initiative for the Global Control of #AfricanSwineFever, a deadly pig disease affecting 51 contries around the 🌍, which has become a major crisis for the pork industry.

➡️ https://t.co/upEDH3WXzi pic.twitter.com/RJ2JPEvLhz

— FAO Newsroom (@FAOnews) July 20, 2020

The joint appeal comes amid an increase in African Swine Fever (ASF) cases that has caused massive losses in pig populations. There are serious concerns about the economic impact of the disease, as pork is the most consumed meat in the world, representing more than one-third of global meat consumption, according to FAO.

One of the world’s foremost providers of R&D services for crop protection production products, SynTech has announced to establish a new Brazilian Field Station.

Strategically located in Bandeirantes, in the north of Paraná, the facility comprises 50 acres of arable land with soil and climate conditions that support a wide variety of crops, including soybean, corn, dry beans, winter cereals, coffee and all major vegetables.

After the successful launch of its membership offering, the African Energy Chamber announced to host introductory sessions to its team across the continent in order to showcase its vision for Africa and how industry practitioners can join the journey through obtaining membership.

Through the sixty-minute sessions, the Chamber will allow its representatives to provide their observations of the current state of their markets and, how the Chamber will contribute to their growth amid the ongoing COVID-19.

The sessions will also underline the objectives of the membership offering, its advantages and how the industry can join in on bolstering Africa’s growth through a Q&A format.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has released its Policy Brief titled “Building Resilient Agriculture Systems”. the brief raises the question “Are agriculture systems well prepared to withstand high impact shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and, faced with such shocks, are they resilient?”. The Policy Brief provides short term and long term recommendations to governments to support resilient agriculture systems within  the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the detailed report here:

AGRA is a farmer-centered, African-led, and partnerships-driven institution that is transforming Africa’s smallholder farming from a solitary struggle to survive to businesses that thrive.