2. Agripreneurs Africa Launch
Discussion with a section of the youth passionate about establishing their own agribusiness
enterprises (during agribusiness seminar 2015 at the University of Ghana, Legon)
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Agripreneurs Africa is a Social Enterprise established in Ghana and operating in the Agricultural Sector.
We are building a global community of smallholder farmers and Agripreneurs towards socially,
environmentally and economically sustainable agribusiness initiatives, poverty alleviation, employment
and wealth creation.
Agripreneurs Africa has recognized the need to help position agriculture as an income generator, a real
business and a livelihood source for achieving food security.
Agripreneurs Africa is poised to transform agriculture into a viable business, supporting the youth,
women and smallholder farmers to engage in demand driven production using innovative production
technologies.
Our projects will result directly in the creation of sustainable agribusiness enterprises, hundreds of jobs
and significant increases in income for the youth and women.
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Agripreneurs Africa
CONCEPT PAPER
Problems:
Smallholder farmers face enormous challenges.
Smallholder farmers make up about 80% of farming population in Africa. They
contribute about 60% of GDP of most African countries. Yet they face real challenges
from production, input supply, technology, extension services to marketing that affect
their output and economic lives. As an example, post-harvest losses are estimated
around 40% for most agricultural products.
The result?
Many African governments import agricultural commodities in large volumes to feed
their populations. The farming population is ageing with the youth not interested to go
into it. If this continues, realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) regarding
food security will be a mirage.
Youth Unemployment
The unemployment rate in Ghana and Africa is frightening! Youth unemployment
which is one of the biggest threats to economic development is on the ascendency.
According to the ILO report ‘Global Employment Trends 2014’, unemployment is
becoming more persistent. In that report, it stated that the world’s unemployment rate
would continue to remain at elevated levels for many years to come. It also made a
specific reference to the youth that ‘Labour market situation of the youth will continue
to worsen’. By 2018, more than 215 million people will be looking for jobs as against
40million jobs created each year. Yet there is huge and rich untapped wealth of
entrepreneurial potential within our youth which can be channeled into agribusiness.
Project Intervention (Solutions)
Agribusiness holds the key solution to these problems. There is the need for a holistic
approach, practicable and business model intervention that is accessible to
smallholder farmers. This provides solutions to all the deficiencies in the systems from
production to marketing, enhancing agricultural production capacity using demand
driven approach and innovative technologies
To address the chronic youth unemployment across the African continent, we are
pioneering an innovative continental model – a social business model - to provide the
youth with innovative ideas the best possible resources – including training, networking,
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business development and ownership, mentorship and new venture equity financing –
to help turn their innovative ideas into real sustainable businesses.
We partner the youth and hardworking smallholder farmers to turn their passion into
sustainable enterprises to create wealth. This is achievable using the social business
model.
Agripreneurs Africa with its mantra of “One Youth, One Agribusiness Enterprise” is
currently being piloted in Ghana with the potential to scale up to other African
countries through franchising. Our Mission is to support the establishment of innovative
agribusiness enterprises to create wealth and employment for the youth across Africa
through the Social Business Model (Ownership) (Registration of Commitment,
Incubation, Enterprise Assessment and Implementation & Learning).
Targets
We estimate that 1,000 new agribusinesses will be established and 10,000 new jobs will
be created within the next 5-years across Africa. Each agribusiness is expected to be
worth $1,000,000 within 5-years of its establishment (1,000 X 10,000 X $1,000,000) “We
have a dream to see thousands of the youth owning their own agribusiness enterprises
and employing their peers. We will invest millions of dollars into start-up agribusinesses
through equity financing to see the youth driving the economy of Africa with
unbounded innovation and creativity. We will build a community of Agripreneurs to
turn their innovative ideas into profitable agribusiness enterprises”.
We will support the financing of such agribusiness enterprises through strategic
partnership with investors, our internal production and marketing activities and
consulting services.
