Kigali — September 2026
Ugandan artificial intelligence startup SANDI AI Technologies has won the Grand Prize at the GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize 2026, taking US$50,000 (about UGX 190 million) in growth funding.
What it does: SANDI AI uses artificial intelligence to connect rural farmers with loans that do not require collateral. The system assesses a farmer’s productivity, needs and potential rather than the employment records and fixed assets conventional lenders demand — requirements most smallholders cannot meet regardless of how viable their farms are.
Who is behind it: Founder Nabakka Sandra, a Ugandan entrepreneur working across artificial intelligence and sustainable development. “Farmers deserve financial systems designed around their realities,” she said. “Our ambition is to make access to finance smarter, fairer, and more inclusive.”
Where it was announced: The Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 Summit in Kigali, Rwanda — one of the continent’s largest gatherings on agriculture and food systems, attended by investors, policymakers and agribusiness leaders. SANDI AI competed against agrifood startups from across Africa and won as the top female-led venture.
What happens next: The company will put the funding into technology development, market expansion, and reaching more farming communities.
Why it matters: Access to finance remains one of the largest constraints on African agricultural output. Millions of farmers cannot borrow, lenders lack tools to price agricultural risk, and governments need scalable food-security solutions. Startups working at the intersection of AI, agriculture and financial services are increasingly the connection between those three needs — which is why the category is drawing investor attention.
For Uganda, the win is also a signal: a homegrown technology company competing and winning at continental level.
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