Africa GreenTec Madagascar, a subsidiary of the German social enterprise Africa GreenTec AG, is deploying productive use equipment at its Mahavelona mini-grid site in the Itasy region. The company received CEI Africa SOF Phase 1 funding to install 12 agro-processing units—including rice husking mills, oil presses, and cassava mills—through a lease-to-own model targeting local SMEs. Customers pay 50% upfront and repay the remainder over 10 months.

The project is expected to directly benefit 364 people, 81% of whom will be first-time users of such technologies, and significantly reduce manual labor for women in the community. AGT’s longer-term strategy aims to scale this model across 69 planned mini-grid sites, with support from GIZ.