The large and growing African youth population has been described as an incredible resource which needed to be tapped into to usher in a new era of economic prosperity in the fast growing agriculture and food sector. This assertion was made by Hugh Scott, the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) Director at KPMG International Development Advisory Services in Lusaka, Zambia Tuesday as officials from an ambitious, innovative partnership that is investing almost a quarter of a billion dollars in small businesses across Africa met with influential industry and government leaders to discuss unlocking financing for a new generation of African agriculture entrepreneurs.
With almost US $250 million in financing from eight donor countries, AECF is instrumental to addressing the dearth of capital available to support fledgling African businesses—particularly small enterprises focused on various aspects of farming and food production. The theme of this year’s Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) held ahead of the 2015 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) openingWednesday is ”Empowering the Private Sector to Boost Africa’s Green Revolution.”
Hugh Scott’s assertion was re-iterated by Dr. Paul Greener, AECF’s Executive Director, who said that just like their peers in America and Europe, that there is a new generation of Africans who are ready to launch a wide array of compelling businesses that could be of enormous benefits to African communities in desperate need of economic development.
Dr. Paul Greener added that many people often assume that the big business opportunities in Africa lie in extractive industries like mining and oil. But he noted that Africa’s food markets could be worth $1 trillion by 2030. “That’s big money and that’s also a huge opportunity,” Greener said. “And the tentacles of agriculture reach out to almost everybody in Africa because two-thirds of Africans are involved in some aspect of agriculture. So there is money to be made and development benefits to be had.
Also speaking at the event, Gem Argwings-Kodhek, the agribusiness adviser to AECF said the biggest need in agribusiness in Africa is investment, adding that AECF is in a certain sense laying the groundwork for investors from outside of Africa who are eager to capitalize on Africa’s growing market for food and agriculture products but unsure about where to put their money.
“Feeding Africa with processed tomatoes, sugar, bread, and milk and providing farmers with things like seeds and vaccines for chickens, it’s a huge business,” he said. “We are really building a pipeline of investible companies for people who want to invest in African agribusinesses.”
AECF officials also used the event to release a report detailing how its portfolio of 160+ projects across Africa is having a significant impact on the lives of rural poor people by addressing some of the continent’s most urgent development challenges.
In 2014, the AECF portfolio reached an estimated 1.39 million households – equivalent to seven million people. In 2014 alone, projects funded by the AECF generated the equivalent of US $117 million in benefits for poor households; help provide over 5,000 jobs, and improved access to clean, sustainable energy for over 200,000 families.
