To help incubator managers identify weaknesses and affect timely remedies assuring their investors and creditors that they, not only can, but are indeed delivering the services they promise. The agricultural sector in Africa contributes an estimated 25% to the continent’s GDP and employs about 70% of the workforce. In spite of this, agribusinesses face a number of challenges including access to finance which limits business growth. According to the World Bank, an estimated $940 billion investment is needed to grow African agriculture which includes agribusinesses by 2050.
“Our Expected Impact
20
Agribusiness Incubators established and operational
7000+
Agribusiness start-ups, SME will gain access to finance through linkages to fi-nancial institutions or investors
84,000
Jobs Created”
The Solution
The African Agribusiness Incubation Fund (AAIF) is a fund introduced by the African Agribusiness Incubation Network (AAIN) to serve as a bridge between agribusi-ness Incubators and their incubatees to enable prepare to access funding and obtain the necessary technical assistance required by incubatees to successfully launch their businesses.
Sources of Funding: the AAIF harnesses financial and technical resources from financial institutions, donors and corpo-rate bodies for the fund.
Eligible Beneficiaries: The financing is accessed by incubators, small scale incu-bator hubs, students, SMEs, cooperatives or individuals with ideas worth spread-ing. The AAIF is managed on commercial basis.
Through the AAIF, aspiring agriprenuers receive:
a. Technical Assistance: through the AAIF, incubators and incubatees get the necessary technical support they need to prepare for financing. This include support from experts in de-veloping and refining business mod-els, business plans and strategies, undertaking market research etc. AAIF working through a network of experts funds the cost of these ser-vices to incubators and incubatees.
b. Access to funding: The AAIF helps agribusinesses to access funding from financial institutions, donor agencies and investors. Startups and SMEs are often considered to be too small and highly risky ventures when accessing finance from financial insti-tutions. However, within the AAIN, agribusiness incubatees are provided with training on basic bookkeeping services and they are also assisted to develop successful business plans, which are necessary requirements in securing funding from any financial institution.
c. Linkages to Financial Institutions: The AAIF presents incubatees (start-ups and SMEs) under the AAIN agri-business incubator to the appropri-ate funding institution. Startups and SMEs under the AAIF are have ac-ceptable levels of risk failures and they are monitored and supported even after gaining access to funding and this increases the confidence of funding institutions in incubates un-der the AAIF.
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