Preserve the Crop, Create the Market: Rethinking Agricultural Value in Africa
Every tomato season, the cycle repeats. Markets are flooded, prices crash, and smallholder farmers scramble to offload their fresh produce before it rots in crates or worse, never leaves the farm. A small portion of these tomatoes reaches urban centres like Nairobi. The rest are wasted. Ironically, while farms overflow with fresh produce, supermarket shelves […]
Co-authored with Ambassador Professor Bitange Ndemo as part of a series on Value Chain Productivity and Innovation
Africa’s Path to Human-centred Industrialisation in the AI Era
There is a well-worn narrative in global development circles that Africa has repeatedly missed out on the great industrial transitions of history—mechanisation, mass production, and digitisation. Now, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) centred on emerging technologies such as data, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, the fear is that the continent might once again fall […]
Rethinking Credit Systems for MSME Inclusion
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), recently held in Seville, ended with what many are calling a “compromise.” The final document emphasized ambition but lacked the financial firepower that developing countries urgently need. While delegates renewed their commitments to sustainable development and multilateral cooperation, the gap between intention and implementation remains stark—particularly […]
Rethinking Sports as a Platform for Youth-Led Value Chains
In Kenya, discussions about job creation often centre on traditional sectors such as agriculture, textiles, or food. These industries are typically examined through a value chain lens, beginning with demand and tracing backwards to uncover gaps in productivity and areas where strategic interventions could unlock income and employment. While this approach has been valuable, not […]
Kenya’s Health Crisis Isn’t a Lack of Hospitals – It’s a Broken System
Across Kenya, counties are racing to build hospitals—new wards, upgraded facilities, and gleaming equipment are popping up across the country. On paper, the healthcare sector appears to be making bold strides forward. But behind the shiny exteriors lies a sobering truth: many of these hospitals are underutilised, under-resourced, or fundamentally misaligned with the country’s most […]
Why rural electrification risks failing—unless we change what it’s designed to deliver.
Across rural Africa, new energy infrastructure is steadily rolling out. From solar mini-grids to national grid extensions and last-mile connections, power is reaching communities that have long lived without it. On paper, this development is a game-changer. For communities that have long lived without power, this should be transformative. But it isn’t. Instead of unlocking […]
Why Kenya’s Leather Industry Lags—and How Rethinking Value Chains Could Transform It
In Narok, a cow is slaughtered. Its hide, once stripped and salted, is sold for a few hundred shillings. Several months later, that same hide resurfaces in a high-end shopping mall in Nairobi—now part of a refined leather handbag priced at 16,000 Kenyan Shillings, sometimes branded with an Italian name stitched into the lining. This […]
The Transformative Potential of the Lunch Economy in Kenya
Kenya’s lunch economy is a vital yet vastly underestimated force in the country’s socio-economic landscape. It feeds millions daily, acting as an indispensable pillar of sustenance and survival. But its true potential transcends mere nourishment—it is a hidden powerhouse capable of driving innovation, fostering domestic brands, and igniting economic growth. Currently shackled by cultural norms, […]
Unlocking True Productivity: Why Funding Must Evolve Beyond Activities
Across the globe and especially in developing economies like Kenya, a quiet but profound failure persists within development efforts: the inability of traditional funding models to catalyse systemic productivity. Despite vast injections of capital into agriculture, health, education, and manufacturing, value chains remain fragile, fragmented, and underperforming. In this article, we propose a new perspective […]
