Author: Tajudeen Adegbenro

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown measures had a huge setback on food production and accessibility resulting in poverty and hunger in developing nations. A report states that more than 100 million Africans are battling catastrophic food insecurity levels and it is predicted that the situation might be worse in…

African Development Bank has opened an application for the AFD Digital challenge 2021. High-impact tech startups in Africa are invited to apply. The challenge was launched in 2016 and has since been rewarding the most innovative African startups, research centers, and groups that leverage digital technology to solve Africa’s challenges and…

The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) has launched E-Lab Innova in Nigeria. It is a government agency that supports business collaborations, partnerships, and development between Italian companies and other local collaborators. The E-Lab Innova is an educational training program that emphasizes the agri-food industry in Nigeria that is aimed at associating…

Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), the Vice President of Nigeria yesterday stated that Nigeria is prioritizing technology and innovation investments in agriculture to transform the sector and make it attractive to young people and enhance productivity. The vice president delivered his remark virtually at the 2021 High-Level Dialogue on Feeding Africa…

CanSense, a Swansea University spin-out developed a new blood test using artificial intelligence for early detection of bowel cancer signs – a disease currently affecting more than 260,00 in the UK. The firm has been developing the test for seven years. The UK is one of the countries performing badly…

Researchers at the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST), the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), and Sano Foods strive to include Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) puree in bread and other confectioneries to reduce the cost of bakers production. The researchers disclosed that the root crop, due…

Zowasel, a Nigerian agtech startup partners with Solidaridad to ensure smallholder farmers can access the right information that will enable them to manage their farms more efficiently to enhance the quality of crops, access financial inclusiveness, and access to enhanced farm inputs to improve yields, and have access to the…

Concerns about food security globally have made countries try to combat food wastage and climate change. In Nigeria, for instance, there is malnutrition, food wastage especially in the rural areas, and poor food quality. To tackle food waste, a Food Technology company Farm365 works closely with rural farmers to help reduce the…

The federal government on Thursday rolled out the distribution of agricultural inputs to around 10,000 smallholder women farmers in North central states and FCT. This is to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and enhance food production in the country. The inputs distributed are value kits (growth enhancers, planting…

The new executive secretary of the National Sugar Development Council, Zacch Adedeji said Nigeria appears to be on a smooth path in its drive towards sugar sufficiency as it is now completing local refining of raw sugar. “We now refine sugar 100 percent in Nigeria. We’ve done excellently well in…

Events of the past years have helped transform the health sector which includes the means of providing and receiving services. As a result, efforts towards leveraging on technology to enhance better health care delivery to patients have yielded positive results regards innovative solutions. Patients recovering from incidents need access to…

The African gig economy has continued to grow at 33% CAGR with 8 million gig workers today and it is the capability of reaching more than 50 million in 2030 according to the Mastercard Foundation. The gig is made up largely by the mobility or courier, e-ride hailing companies, and…

The demand for e-learning products through platforms, authoring tools, and content development has continued to grow in Africa. Considering that the local educational institutions on the African continent may not have the ability to satisfy the student’s demand for effective learning, this brings the emergence of edtech startups advocating for…

WACOT Limited, a leading food, and agro-processing company in West Africa, and Syngenta Crop Protection, a leading global agritech company partners to bring an impact by boosting Nigeria’s food security and ensuring the sustainable development of the agricultural industry. This will make Syngenta Crop Protection and WACOT work closely for…

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) IN Nigeria launched a COVID-19 Food Security Challenge that will help provide $3 million grant funding and technical assistance to youth-led and mid-stage companies working in food value chains in Nigeria. The Food Security Challenge is launched to assist commercially viable youth-led and mid-stage…

BlockApps collaborated with Bayer, to launch a new blockchain-powered business network. The TraceHarvest Network is aimed at transforming the way agricultural products are managed, setting new sustainability standards, and driving digital transformation and food system resiliency vital to the future of the agricultural industry. The business is an Etherum-based network that improves food quality,…

Manolin, a US-based software and data Analytics Company founded in 2018, develops disease detection models to enhance aquaculture sustainability. The company has announced breakthrough progress with its machine learning software which helps to detect the risk of disease on aquaculture farms with a claim of over 93% accuracy. Historically, despite…

Picking tomatoes can be expensive and a tedious task specifically when there is a short supply of labor, however, robotic help is now available. Inaho Inc, a Japanese company has established a subsidiary company inaho Europe BV with a base in the Netherlands and has developed a new robot for…

Portsmouth Aviation plans to start manufacturing negative ventilators to assist those suffering from COVID-19 respiratory effects. A negatively pressured ventilator means the treatment is noninvasive; the patients can receive breathing assistance through a mask, making them conscious, upright, and the ability to talk to their loved ones on phone during…

A digital health platform, Miiskin that helps people to routinely track changes in their skin has launched a Mole Sizing feature which allows users to measure lesions or moles through the app and a reference object like a coin.  During skin self-examinations, and when monitoring moles for possible melanoma signs,…