The U.S. Agency for International Development has announced plans to invest more than $38 million in four entrepreneurship programs that aim to address food security and energy challenges in developing countries.
USAID will collaborate with Power Africa through its global development lab to roll out a challenge that aims to support entrepreneurs’ and investors’ efforts to provide 20 million households in sub-Saharan Africa access to electricity grid, USAID Administrator Gayle Smith announced Thursday.
USAID will invest $36 million in the Scaling Off-Grid Energy: A Grand Challenge for Development and will team up with Shell Foundation and the U.K. international development agency on the effort.
Entrepreneurs will also receive up to $2.5 million in funds from USAID to help them develop and pilot their cool storage systems that seek to address food waste problems in countries where the U.S. implements the Feed the Future program.
USAID will also support two entrepreneurship programs in partnership with Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund 500 Startups, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the governments of Australia and South Korea.
