Africa’s Agri-techs Realise Datasets are Useful they need to figure out How to Make the Useful Valuable
Agriculture employs the largest population in Africa and accounts for 30% to 40% of GDP. Despite its obvious importance, African agricultural practices and investments suffer most from a lack of information compared to most other sectors on the continent. Judging from AgBase’s State of African Agritech 2024 report, commercial and non-commercial investors often collaborate to evaluate and invest together (although this is declining). Still, sharing time-limited information about a specific deal or financing opportunity is a far cry from easy insight into the trends that are shaping the development of agricultural value chains, business models and technology players at different levels. Modern economies are built on interconnected value chains, and agriculture is no exception. The lack of easily accessible, comprehensive and contextual information means that governments, investors and even farmers struggle to understand, let alone adequately support agricultural development beyond limited time-limited interventions.
