Growing agribusiness entrepreneurs in Africa
Exciting times for the Agripreneurship Alliance! Following our registration as an official international NGO in Uganda and the opening of an office at the CURAD incubator in Kampala, we have hired two staff members who started on September 1st .
John is our new Programme Manager, and this is what he had to say about his appointment. “I am thrilled and eager to support the mission of the Agripreneurship Alliance, developing the next
generation of African Agripreneurs. We must unleash young people’s creativity and potential if we
are to address challenges such as youth migration, food insecurity and climate change”.
Sheila is our new Administration Officer, in her words ”Work isn’t fun until you meet your dream
team and I believe I have found mine and I have great confidence that together we shall build
something amazing for young African agrifood entrepreneurs”.
John and Sheila bring a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, the financial sector, agricultural
research as well as the NGO sector and we are delighted to have them “on board”. Steven spent
most of September in Uganda for their induction and together they met the majority of our Ugandan partners. It will be a fast ramp-up as Steven, John and Sheila will be delivering together a Business Readiness Training of Trainers course in Zambia at the end of October for five universities from Zambia and Kenya. This is in collaboration with the Häme University of Applied Sciences in Finland and PBL-Africa.
The fourth cohorts of the Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness training are drawing to a close and so far 42 business plans have been submitted for review, with a few more still being finalised. Some very interesting business ideas – such as Amaranthus value addition, mulberry teas and juices, and natural liquid fertilisers. We are particularly pleased to see the progress of the Official University of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo who facilitated two groups this year and submitted a number of well-written business plans that can certainly lead to successful enterprises.
For more details about our work, with the added bonus that you can make a donation to the Agripreneurship Alliance, please visit our page at Global Giving.
Anne Roulin
President, Agripreneurship Alliance
October 2022