The distance between their farms and the nearest processor is key for smallholder farmers who need to process their crops. And though Nigeria’s food processing systems have a keen resemblance to the West with respect to big factories and huge economies of scale in high-demand cities, farmers still suffer from poor logistics networks. With distance and logistics problems, farmers’ crops can go bad and when factories buy them, it affects their processing yields and price. Farmers, witnessing post-harvest loss, also get paid less and miss the opportunity to invest in their crops production. Nigerian agritech startup Releaf is solving this…

The simple habit of noticing is the difference between forward motion and being left behind Some of the best advice I ever received was packaged in this eight-word statement: "Speed is your enemy; momentum is your friend." It is counsel anchored in a simple idea-- that while we crave forward motion, it is the forward part, in the truest and fullest sense of the word, that we need most of all. The motion part, the part about speed and obsessing over it, and the part we tend to treat with undo reverence, is secondary and supporting. It's a critical distinction…

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote is in talks with some of the world’s biggest oil traders to help finance his mega refinery project outside of Nigeria’s commercial centre Lagos, sources with knowledge of the matter said, although his company denied the discussions. The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery, once complete, will be the continent’s largest plant and redraw major trade flows of crude and fuel in the Atlantic basin. Despite being Africa’s biggest oil producer and exporter, the country depends almost entirely on fuel imports after allowing its significant refining capacity, 445,000 barrels-per-day, to become dilapidated over several decades. Many past and…

Nigeria’s lenders likely don’t have enough dollars to fund clients seeking to acquire oil assets put on sale by the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the country’s biggest lender said. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc doesn’t see the likelihood of any client raising the estimated $2.3 billion needed to purchase the Shell assets, said Segun Agbaje, CEO of the financial group that owns the lender. Such a deal would require a syndication of up to $1.8 billion, and it “can be very tough to raise this kind of funding locally at the moment,” Agbaje said. Shell said in May…