A five year multicountry project for Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda is investing €2 million in grants to 14 agribusinesses in three countries.The investment from the Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomor-row (Craft) project is specifically targeting companies and farmers in the sunflower, soybean, sesame, common beans, potato and sorghum value chains in the three countries.
The Craft project manager for Tanzani, Mr. Menno Keizer, said in a statement yesterday that the co-investment with the private sector was one of the key strategies identified by the project to achieve sustainable results and increase availability and accessibility of climate-resilient food. Through its climate innovation and investment facility (CIIF), the project will support performance-based investments in the targeted value chains.
So far, four Tanzanian companies have signed partnership agreements worth 567, 135 Euros.
Craft invests in companies that have demonstrated from their own internally generated funds as well as from third-party providers (financiers and beneficiaries) that their businesses are viable.
The project will thus work with and through private sector to promote climate-smart agriculture-related innovations at farm and value chain level and support public sector partners in creating the institutional environment for wide-scale adoption of CSA practices.
The CIF contribution is not an end in itself but rather a means for attracting commercial funding for follow-on investment and scaling. The agribusinesses invest in their own funds and then leverage off the CRAFT grant to attract additional investment from commercial financial institutions.
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This not only boosts their creditworthiness and relationship with the financial institutions but ensures businesses continuity beyond the life o the project.
The Craft investment facility will be liable to reduce the financial risks of new business initiatives including those of small-medium scale (women and youth-led) agribusinesses and of cooperatives, thereby contributing to an increase in the level of investment and private sector engagement in the climate-resilient food system in East Africa.
The Climate Resilient Agribusinesses for Tomorrow (Craft) project is a multi-country (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda ) five-year effort implemented by SNV in partnership with Wageningen University and Research (MUR, CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security(CCAFS) Agriterra, and Rabo Partnerships. The project is funded by the Netherland Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
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