• Degas to invest $100M in Ghanaian AI-driven agriculture

• Initiative targets financing, precision farming, and yield improvement

• Builds on Ghana’s growing digital agriculture ecosystem and pilots
  

Degas Limited, a Japanese agri-fintech startup plans to invest $100 million in Ghana over the next four years to boost the use of artificial intelligence in the agricultural sector.

The announcement by Degas Limited was made in a government statement on the sidelines of the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9), which was held from Aug. 20-22 in Yokohama.

According to Doga Makiura, the CEO of Degas Limited, the initiative is designed to expand the financing and technological solutions the company has provided to farmers since its establishment in Ghana in 2019. "Our $100 million commitment will scale AI-driven satellite monitoring and precision agriculture techniques so farmers can boost yields, reduce risk, and access fairly priced finance," Makiura said.

The Degas investment marks a significant new step, but it is not Ghana's first foray into integrating AI in agriculture. Several initiatives have emerged in recent years. In 2022, the Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture and Food Systems network launched an AI-based app to detect crop diseases and pests in the country's north. That same year, the company KaraAgro AI, with support from GIZ, developed precision agriculture solutions for cashew farmers using drones and satellite imagery.

Recently, a German-backed national competition in June 2025 brought together more than 1,500 data scientists to create AI models for disease detection in key crops like corn, tomatoes, and peppers. Also this year, the Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development (AI4SD) project developed an AI-integrated weather forecasting system that blends indigenous weather prediction methods with machine learning to improve local farming decisions.

While these projects are often pilot programs, they signal the gradual emergence of a digital agricultural ecosystem in Ghana. The Degas Limited initiative, however, stands out due to the scale of its funding and its comprehensive approach, which integrates financing, inputs, logistics, storage, and market access. According to Makiura, the Degas financing model is already being used by 86,000 small-scale farmers, covering nearly 49,371 hectares across the country.

Overall, the large-scale integration of digital technologies and fintech solutions is seen as a strategic lever to address persistent challenges that hinder agricultural development, including limited access to financing for small-scale farmers, a lack of reliable data for agricultural planning, and post-harvest losses due to inefficient logistics and a lack of suitable agricultural insurance.

Stéphanas Assocle