By Patrick Jaramogi
At least sixty (60) successful applicants of the Young Innovators in Agribusiness 2015 Competition drawn from Ethiopia are undergoing business training at Toyota Kenya Academy in Nairobi.
They arrived in Nairobi on December 8 and will leave on December 12 2015. They are drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia, in the competition’s SMEs category. The trainees will be exposed to fundamentals of agribusiness innovation as well as practical, investible, sustainable and cutting edge models in the agribusiness value chain. It is expected that this understanding will transform their activities and businesses in their home countries.
The youth, aged between 18-35 years, run small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that address a need along various agricultural value chains in their respective countries. The needs include production, value addition, innovation and knowledge transfer. A similar number of youth start-up owners were trained in October this year. Highlights from the training included discussions with business leaders from Uchumi Supermarkets and Palma World.
The Young Innovators in Agribusiness 2015 competition follows last year’s successful agribusiness competition that attracted over 800 participants from sub-Saharan Africa as well as the participation of Young Innovators in Agribusiness at the 2015 Africa Green Revolution Forum in Zambia.
This year’s edition is made possible by the USAID-supported East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Syngenta, Inter-Region Economic Network and Toyota Kenya Academy. The current competition’s main focus is to equip youth with skills to establish and run sustainable enterprises along agricultural value chains. The competition targets 60 start-ups and 60 SMEs.
At the Toyota Kenya Academy, the enterprise holders are receiving accelerated training meant to yield investor ready businesses. This is done through individual work, classroom sessions conducted by course facilitators, group work and talks from thought leaders.
The top 30 finalists will receive entry to the Agribusiness Innovation and Trade Fair to be conducted by IREN and its partners in May 2016 while the top 6 finalists will receive seed capital amounting to USD 20 000.