ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – On the dusty backroads of rural Kenya, a quiet technological revolution is reshaping the future of African agriculture. Thanks to artificial intelligence, women livestock farmers are gaining something many have long been denied access to formal finance.
At the heart of this transformation is Jenny Ambukiyenyi Onya, a young Congolese engineer and founder of Neotex.ai, an AI-driven platform that helps rural livestock keepers turn their animals into verifiable financial assets. Her innovation, Halisi Livestock, uses facial recognition technology to digitally identify individual cows through a simple smartphone photo creating a tamper-proof biometric identity for each animal.
“It’s like facial recognition, but for livestock,” explains Jenny. “Once a digital identity is created, it acts as proof of ownership and a reliable basis for valuing herds making livestock acceptable as loan collateral.”
This leap in innovation addresses a persistent problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, where over 200 million smallholder farmers operate with the majority being women. Despite owning large portions of Africa’s livestock, women receive just 10% of smallholder loans and only 1% of total agricultural financing, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The stakes are high: for many women, livestock is their primary form of savings. Yet without digital verification, their wealth remains invisible to banks. Neotex.ai changes that. Since launching in new rural areas across Kenya, the company has already registered more than 1,250 animals, demonstrating the scalability of its model.
Jenny credits part of Neotex.ai’s success to the “Enhancing Women Entrepreneurship for Africa” programme, backed by the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) under the African Development Bank Group. The initiative offered strategic guidance and support that helped refine Neotex’s market approach and scale up operations.
As the world marks World Youth Skills Day 2025, Jenny’s work stands as a powerful example of how African youth and especially women are harnessing digital tools to solve local challenges.
“Technology makes the livestock sector visible and measurable,” she says. “It’s time for financial institutions to see the potential of rural women and invest in the economies they drive.”
Her message to young African innovators is bold: “Dare to create. Even in sectors where you’re not expected.”