Green tech and internet in Benin

The Songhaï Center was founded in the mid-'80s by Father Godfrey Nzamujo, a Dominican priest and Nigerian native, on a few acres of swampland granted by Benin's former president. What began as an experiment in small-scale sustainable development to fight poverty has since become a popular institution, and a symbol of Africa's potential for self-determination and prosperity.

Africa Rice Center - WARDA

Africa Rice Center (WARDA) is an autonomous intergovernmental research association of African member states. It is also one of the 15 international agricultural research Centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Its mission is to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security in Africa, through research, development and partnership activities aimed at increasing the productivity and profitability of the rice sector in ways that ensure the sustainability of the farming environment.

Lister Hospital - Accra, Ghana

About Lister Hospital

Lister Hospital and Fertility Centre is a fully equipped ultra modern 25 bed medical centre providing extensive general and specialist healthcare and diagnostic services to residents, visiting business people as well as holiday makers.

Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium

Kenya is getting serious with wind power, here is some info on Lake Turkan wind power outfit.

From site:

Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium (LTWP) is poised to provide 300 MW of clean power to Kenya's national electricity grid by taking advantage of a unique wind resource in Northwest Kenya near Lake Turkana. Using the latest wind turbine technology LTWP can provide reliable and continuous clean power to satisfy up to 30% of Kenya's current total installed power.

Ivorian company builds tropically tolerant buses for African market

Courtesy of BBC

BBC is reporting that Sorta, the engineering arm of the national transport company of Ivory Coast is building tropically tolerant buses for the African market. Sorta plans on building up to 300 a year, this is good for getting people employed and spreading the Ivorian brand around the continent. This is a great story of African ingenuity, building and selling to the home-grown market.

Read a snippet from BBC

The engineering arm of the national transport company, Sotra, decided it could save money and create a bus better suited to African conditions.

"We want the transfer of technology in Africa, and we want to build our own buses with our own specification," says Sotra's director Mamadou Coulibaly.

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AABS - Association of African Business Schools

From AABS site:

To promote excellence in business and management education in Africa by supporting graduate business schools through capacity building, collaboration and quality improvement.

By training current and future leaders in their home markets, business schools in Africa play a critical role in laying the groundwork for private sector development. Its programmes build effective business schools in order to improve the practice of management in African organisations and to enhance the relevance and contribution of business schools to policy debate on African development research and policy development. AABS demonstrates our members’ commitment to increase significantly the contribution that business schools make to the economic and general development in the African continent.

Winafrique Technologies Limited

From Their Site

Winafrique Technologies Ltd. was incorporated in Kenya in 2002 as an integrated renewable energy resource company. Winafrique Technologies Ltd. has since then provided renewable energy solutions to Government, institutions, and public and private companies.

The alternative energy solutions provided deliver reliable renewable power that is environmentally benign and reduces reliance on fossil based power generation.. These solutions have been successfully applied in schools (remote ICT based), telecommunications base stations, water desalination, and other remote locations. In addition Winafrique Technologies Ltd. provide specialist solutions for situations where grid power is available and or unreliable.

The main solution categories at Winafrique are:

• Hybrid Remote Alternative Power Systems.
• Wind Power Solutions.
• Solar Power Solutions.
• Water Pumping Solutions.
• Power Enhancing Solutions.
• Energy Storage Solutions.

Afric Xpress - Mobile solutions provider for African markets

From their site:

Afric Xpress (AX) is a solution provider for mobile phone-based and other electronic transaction services for African communities in the continent and abroad. The company’s mission is to foster electronic–based markets in Africa by turning mobile phones and computers into commercial platforms with the ultimate goal of empowering our customers with security, speed, and convenience. We serve our international customers with online services available on our website while the primary channel for our customer in the continent is the mobile phone. 

We also provide mobile banking solutions in partnership with the telecom providers and various banks. Our current target for these services is the local Ghanaian population with cell phone connectivity and a local bank account. These mobile phone services are solely for local use and country specific. They are not available online and do not require any credit card processing. For more information about this service, visit www.txtnpay.net 

DMT Mobile Toilets

DMT mobile toilets was founded in 1992 . DMT is a pioneer mobile toilet company in Nigeria and at present the only manufacturer in the West African sub-region.

DMT at inception manufactured wagon toilets locally, but in 1999 the company complemented its locally produced wagon toilets with about 30 plastic portable toilets imported from the United Kingdom . 

ALC - African Laser Centre

About ALC

The mission of the ALC is to enable African nations to collaborate with each other and to play a major role internationally in utilising light to advance science and technology, thereby contributing to the strengthening of their economies, their global competitiveness, education and welfare of their people. This co-operation will take place in the spirit of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Union.

The African Laser Centre, a virtual centre of excellence focusing on laser research in Africa, was established in 2002 to provide a platform through which Africa can pool its resources to become globally competitive. The Centre is an open, non-exclusive partnership aimed at stimulating innovative research and technology development in the field of lasers and laser applications.

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa - AGRA

About AGRA

AGRA is a dynamic, African-led partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programs develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural “value chain”—from seeds, soil health, and water to markets and agricultural education. AGRA is chaired by Kofi A. Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. AGRA, with initial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Accra, Ghana.

Magadi Soda Company - Kenya ash manufacturer

From their site:

The Magadi Soda Company is one of Africa's largest soda ash manufacturers and employs over 450 people in Kenya. The company recovers trona from one of the purest surface deposits in the base of the Rift Valley and converts it into sodium carbonate (soda ash). 

The operations at Lake Magadi are situated 120kms south west of Nairobi. Product is transported by rail to the Port of Mombasa for onward shipping to the markets. 

Soda ash is an essential constituent in the manufacture of glass and important in the production of detergents and industrial chemicals. Over 95% of the company product is exported to its principal markets of South East Asia, Indian sub-continent, Africa and the Middle East.