Theme: Pivoting Africa as a net food exporter
The Mastercard Foundaton Fund for Resilience and Prosperity recently participated and exhibited at the Market Access Africa (MAA) 2024 event, held on the Tuesday 25 to Wednesday 26 June 2024 in Lagos, Nigeria. Market Access Africa is an event that connects the entire food and agriculture value chain with a focus on attaining and improving access to regional and international markets. MAA is the meeting place for food and agriculture buyers and sellers – A global platform for stakeholders to identify the latest technologies that will raise the continent’s food and agricultural productivity, develop robust supply chains, scale value addition, link to trading services and discuss policy reforms to curb Africa’s annual import bill. The Fund team attended and participated in various sessions. Wilson Irungu, Fund Grants Lead and Muthoni Waweru, Fund GESI Lead, conducted a presentation session that highlighted the inception of the Fund including the objectives, interventions, sectors, and countries of focus. They also shared information about the ongoing Agribusiness Challenge Fund, highlighting the eligibility and selection criteria as well as the application timelines.
The Fund Market Studies Lead, Grace Njiru, moderated a panel discussion on Wednesday 26 June titled ‘Connecting Smallholder and Medium Scale Farmers to New Markets - Path to Commercial Farming and Export-Oriented Agro Processing.’ The discussion revolved around finding ways to link smallholder farmers to markets being key to reducing poverty and hunger. “Governments need to invest in local infrastructure, strengthen business services and improve farmers’ skills, while extension systems are needed to upgrade production and market performance” stated one of the panelists during the discussion. The panel also had discussions around the changing role of agricultural extension services and the growing focus on smallholder farmers, outlining how agriculture can, over time, provide a pathway out of poverty. Grace Njiru shared with the panel that the Fund, through the Agribusiness Challenge Fund, will be looking to support SMEs within the Agribusiness sector that can create employment for young people. Wilson Irungu, Fund Grants Lead was part of a panel on Wednesday 26 June titled ‘Africa and the World’s Collaboration Efforts in Ensuring Food Security for All’. The panel discussion highlighted at food security in Africa would need an increase in production and ensuring that farming systems are more resilient to price and environmental shocks.
The Funds Grant Lead, Wilson Irungu stated ‘’ Financial institutions and consulting firms play significant roles in bridging the gap between African agricultural businesses and international investors including provision of capacity building services, carefully designing financial products that are best suited for the agricultural sector and the different demographics, creating linkages between agricultural businesses and potential investors among others.” The continent is grappling with high unemployment rates, yet about 60% of the uncultivated farmland is in Africa. With the right policies and investments, there is an enormous potential for job creation in the agricultural sector in Africa. The discussion also focused on how African agriculture is plagued by low productivity, under-investment, urban-biased policies, and bottlenecks preventing women’s access to productive capital, including secure land tenure. African agriculture also has low value addition and poor rural infrastructure.
As a result of poor performance, the spectre of famine that has disappeared from other parts of the world persists in Africa. The Fund was also exhibiting during the event which provided an opportunity to interact with various stakeholders interested in gaining more information on the Fund. Overall, the event provided an opportunity for the Fund team to participate in various relevant sessions, network and share information on the Fund as well as add relevant stakeholders to the Fund database. The Fund team was also able to provide guidance on the ongoing application process for the Agribusiness Challenge Fund.
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