Productive land is one of Africa’s most valuable natural assets in banishing extreme poverty and creating shared prosperity.  Currently, about 65% of Africa’s arable land is too damaged to sustain viable food production and at least 485 million (65%) people are affected, at a financial cost of  US$9.3 billion every year. The human toll – everything from lost livelihoods to poor health – is incalculable.

It’s time to find sustainable solutions to restore, protect and maintain African land for the benefit of people and the planet. The Land Accelerator equips entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to tackle this issue by building economically viable, sustainable businesses that safeguard our planet and provide livelihoods for millions of people.

Already, entrepreneurs across Africa have benefited from the Land Accelerator. Exotic EPZ, an alumnus of the Land Accelerator program, led by Jane Maigua and her partners, works directly with 2600 smallholder farmers in 12 Kenyan counties who are growing over 94,000 macadamia nut trees. Not only does Exotic improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods through the purchase of the macadamia nuts, but the company provides capacity building and access to seedlings to its smallholder farmers as part of land restoration activities. Over the next two years, Exotic is implementing a program that will support farmers to plant and grow 150,000 macadamia nut trees, spread over nearly 500 hectares, while mixing them with other high-value tree species such as moringa.

The company integrated land restoration into its business model in 2017. Over time, the company's sales have known an increase of more than 1800%. Its 2,600 partner farms earn $1,013, on average per season. Recently, the company received a $ 1 million grant from the USAID-EA ATI program to help expand its activities.

“The land Accelerator helped us see the linkages between our business growth and land restoration, thus helping us remodel Exotic EPZ business, said Jane Maigua”. “With Land Accelerator, we gained confidence in pitching our business model to investors and provided an opportunity for mentorship and peer-to-peer learning,” she added.

Sixteen energized entrepreneurs chosen from 1400 applications from 41 of 54 African countries met over five days to grow their companies and create thousands of jobs within rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.  The Land Accelerator is the world’s first start-up accelerator dedicated to empowering land restoration entrepreneurs and an important step to directing much-needed finance to rural economies.

Once a company graduates from the program, they're more likely to attract serious funding. TerraFund for AFR100, for example, has provided $3 million in loans to 20 of these start-ups since 2021.

To discover the Top 16 businesses of the Land Accelerator Africa 2022 visit https://afr100.org/content/road-kigali-impact-days-how-are-these-16-african-businesses-restoring-land-and-making-money.