Compiled by Dylan Bettencourt
- SANDI AI uses artificial intelligence to help rural African farmers get loans without needing property or assets to back them.
- The Ugandan startup later won US$50,000 to improve its technology, enter new markets and reach more farming communities.
A Ugandan startup is using artificial intelligence to help African farmers who struggle to qualify for traditional loans.
SANDI AI Technologies aims to connect rural farmers with finance without relying only on things such as fixed assets, formal employment records or property to back a loan.
According to iAfrica, many small-scale farmers struggle to borrow money even when they have productive land, farming experience and buyers for what they produce.
Without finance, they can battle to buy supplies, increase production or grow their farms.
SANDI AI combines artificial intelligence with agricultural information to find different ways of understanding farmers and their ability to repay loans.
Founder Nabakka Sandra said financial systems should be built around farmers’ actual circumstances.
“Farmers should not be limited by systems that were not designed around their realities,” Sandra said.
She said technology could help lenders understand farmers better and recognise their potential.
The startup’s work has now earned it a major continental prize.
SANDI AI was named the female-led Grand Prize Winner of the GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize 2026 at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
The company received US$50,000, which it plans to use to improve its technology, expand into new markets and reach more farming communities.
The competition recognises young African entrepreneurs building businesses around agriculture, food production and rural development.
Sandra said the award was about more than the money.
“Our ambition is to make access to finance smarter, fairer and more inclusive,” she said.
For SANDI AI, the goal is to give farmers who have long been left out of traditional financial systems a better chance of getting the money they need to grow.
Pictured above: The SANDI AI app.
Image source: Nabakka Sandra/LinkedIn
