Precious Kamanzi

Rwandan tech entrepreneur who revolutionized African agriculture through mobile technology solutions.

Precious Kamanzi is a visionary Rwandan entrepreneur who co-founded mFarm, a groundbreaking mobile platform connecting smallholder farmers to global markets. Born in 1985 in Kigali, she studied computer science at the University of Rwanda before developing mFarm in 2012. The app provides real-time market prices, weather forecasts, and access to agricultural loans, serving over 500,000 farmers across East Africa. Her work has increased farmers' incomes by up to 40% in regions like Kenya's Rift Valley, earning her recognition as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2018.

Kamanzi expanded her impact through Agritech Africa, a network connecting 15,000+ startups in agricultural tech. She pioneered the FarmChain blockchain system to track crop quality from farm to export markets, reducing post-harvest losses by 25%. Her TED Talk "Mobile Phones as Farmers' New Seeds" has been viewed over 2 million times. In 2021, she launched WomenCrops, an initiative that secured $12M in funding for female-led agribusinesses in Uganda and Tanzania.

A UN Women Goodwill Ambassador since 2020, Kamanzi advocates for digital literacy in rural areas through her TechGirls Africa program. Her innovations were featured in MIT Technology Review's Disruptive Technologies in Emerging Markets report and highlighted by the African Development Bank as a model for inclusive tech adoption. She currently advises the African Union's NEPAD on digital agriculture policies.