Savanna Agri Chains, which sources and exports shea butter and baobab from Northern Ghana while actively restoring the land, is one of five African enterprises selected for the first cohort of the Nature-First Innovation Lab (NFIL).
The 12-month accelerator, run by FSD Africa with Systemiq and the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA) and backed by UK International Development and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), will help the five get ready to raise investment, with a collective fundraising target of around US$10 million.
Founded in 2016 and led by Julius Awaregya, Savanna is based in Paga and works with more than 1,000 women harvesters across 22 districts of Northern Ghana. Its shea butter and baobab are used in skincare and food. It is certified by EcoCert, which allows it to export organic products to Europe and the Americas, and by Regenified, which confirms that its practices actively restore the land. These include natural composting and better use of water.
The company doubled its revenue between 2023 and 2025 and is now looking to expand operations to 40 districts in Ghana and to Central South Region in Burkina Faso as well as increase the number of collectors and aggregators from 2,800 to 7,000. Through NFIL, Savanna will get help to put its finances in order, formalise how the company is run, and prepare it to raise the money it needs to centralise its operations and upgrade its processing equipment so more of the value it generates can be captured locally.
Savanna is joined by four other enterprises from Africa:
- Acacia EPZ, a Kenyan exporter of gum arabic providing an alternative to supplies interrupted by conflict in Sudan
- Forested, which works with smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to supply regenerative honey, beeswax, shea butter, and oils to international beauty brands
- NovFeed (Tanzania), which turns organic waste into fish feed and fertiliser
- ForestFoods (Kenya), which uses a Brazilian method of agroforestry. What links all five is that their revenue depends on maintaining or restoring healthy land, forests and soils.
An estimated 62% of Africa’s GDP is dependent on nature, according to research by FSD Africa and McKinsey Sustainability. Yet enterprises that build the protection and restoration of nature into their business model often struggle to raise the funding they need to grow.
NFIL aims to help fill this gap according to Dorothy Maseke, Head of the ANCA Secretariat and Lead, Nature Finance and TNFD at FSD Africa.
She said: “A growing number of African enterprises reach technical feasibility and then stall because revenues aren’t sufficiently anchored, governance is not investment-grade, and documentation is incomplete. It’s that gap between what grants and philanthropy will fund and where commercial capital begins that NFIL is designed to fill. These five enterprises are already established and generating revenue. What they need now is support to get investment-ready.”
Each enterprise will receive grants, help with financial planning, governance and measuring its impact on nature, along with introductions to investors. NFIL does not take equity. Its role is to bring enterprises to the point where investors can make a decision.
The first cohort focuses on regenerative supply chains. Regenerating the world’s 30 most valuable landscapes is a USD 310 billion opportunity for commercial investors, according to one recent estimate (BCG, 2025).
