The President of the European Council, His Excellency Charles Michel, today made a courtesy visit to the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) to witness at first hand the progress and impact of the AgriBiz Programme. KCIC is one of the implementing partners of the Kshs. 5.1 billion programme that is funded by the European Union and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and is creating jobs for women and youth in the agricultural sector.
The AgriBiz Programme supports 2,400 women and youth to create and sustain agribusinesses, and thereby create at least 17,000 jobs by 2024. The aim is to draw more young people and women into a sector where currently the average age of farmers is around 65 and to show that younger generations and both genders can be successful in this area of business. It is also working with local financial institutions via the African Development Bank to leverage loans for women- and youth-owned businesses of around Kshs 30 billion (Euro 230 million) to further boost the effort.
To date, seven Kenyan counties have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) under the programme to promote the growth and development of the agribusiness sector through the provision of business incubation services to youth and women agri-preneurs.
It is expected that eight Business Incubation Hubs will be established in total, covering entrepreneurs from all 47 counties as the hubs will serve neighbouring counties as well. Interested entrepreneurs, self-help groups, cooperatives, or SMEs can apply via a rolling system of application windows: over 10,000 applications have been received so far.
The agribusinesses selected for the programme will continue to benefit from training, business advisory services and financing throughout the programme cycle to promote sustainable exploitation of natural resources by encouraging appropriate agribusinesses practices. In Kenya, largely an agricultural country, investments in the agribusiness sector will be key to enabling the economy bounce back post COVID-19.
The Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Climate Innovation Center, Dr Edward Mungai hailed the visit by the President of the European Council to the KCIC as a great honour saying, “Agriculture provides the highest potential to create employment and offers the most jobs to youth and women. However, this potential is still untapped because most of the farmers practice subsistence farming. This means young people see agriculture as an unattractive venture or business to participate in. This is the narrative KCIC is changing under the AgriBiz programme and we are delighted to see the tremendous impact since the inception of the programme one year ago.”
