To equip incubator management with the best business tools and help them to find and support mentors, especially for young and female incubatees, Many entrepreneurs as well small and medium enterprises (SMEs) fail at the initial years of establishment because they lack the needed resources and skills to survive challenges at the early stage of business. They have limited ac-cess to financial products and services, and are not aware of people, networks and support services that could lead to the long term success of their businesses.
”Our Expected Impact
200+
Agribusiness Incubators registered and supported by AAIN
10,000+
SMES profiled for incubation support”
The Solution
The African Agribusiness Incubator Net-work (AAIN) provides incubators and SMEs a pool of mentors who are trained and skilled in supporting businesses to start, survive and grow.
Through the Business Development and Mentorship Support (BDMS) For Youth and Start-ups, AAIN works directly with early stage agribusinesses, supporting their growth through the provision of knowledge, skills, networking and men-torship.
Specific support provided include:
1. Mapping financial products and ser-vices for incubators and linkages with possible investors and associ-ate partners: AAIN has identified financial products and services for agribusiness development. These include grants, loans (working capi-tal, capital investment) and a blend of these from government, interna-tional organizations, donors and pri-vate sector institutions. AAIN, through its experienced senior man-agers and pool of experts, is there-fore able to identify the specific fi-nancial needs of its incubators/incubatees and match them to these sources of financing. AAIN provides other training for its incubators in areas such as business skills, project management as well accounting and finance.
2. Developing Pipeline of Bankable Incubator Business to Potential In-vestors: AAIN has mentors who work with youth and startup entrepre-neurs to develop bankable business plans, proposals and projects which are channeled to potential investors for funding.
3. Development of risk mitigation models for agribusiness incubation: AAIN supports youth and start-ups to identify various risks that are as-sociated with their businesses and help them strategize to mitigate these risks. AAIN also provides men-torship for youth and start-ups to guide them through the early stages of business.
4. Serving and management of struc-tured finance model: Youth and startups in agribusiness have unique financing needs. Traditional banks and financial institutions do not ad-dress the financing needs of start-up agribusinesses. AAIN has therefore developed tailor-made finance mod-els that meet specific needs of youth and startups in agribusiness.
No Comments