The half day-long summit, attended by Dr Jenna Ross and Martin Squire, brought together stakeholders from governments, investors, business, academia and multilateral institutions to take stock of the agriculture and agri-tech sectors in Africa and identify opportunities to enhance growth, efficiency, productivity and sustainability across agricultural value chains in support of smallholder farmers, agricultural products processing and boost food security.
Its aim was threefold: to highlight innovative solutions for growth, discuss areas for further investment and qualifiers for investment, and create an avenue for collaboration between the UK and African private and public sectors.
John Jakobsson, Investment Manager at AgDevCo, an investment fund focused on agriculture investment, spoke about the company’s aim to provide growth capital and specialist support with $150m (£110m) invested in companies across Africa. The fund has invested in primary production, both at large plantation and smallholder level and along the value chain including producers, processors, and traders.
Roland Oroh, Founder and CEO of Nigeria Agribusiness Register, outlined the challenges currently faced by the Nigerian economy and the opportunities for import substitution, infrastructure investment and export market development along the value chain.
Jennifer Baarn, Head of Partnerships at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) pointed to the $400bn (£290bn) investment gap for agriculture in Africa. She argued that fragmented value chains for perishable goods were in need of aggregation, along with more focus on the digitalisation of agriculture.
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, Managing Partner of Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited and co-founder of AACE Food Processing & Distribution, presented the need for scaling resilient agriculture businesses and making them ready for inward investment. She gave case studies to show how this can be achieved by developing a compelling and sustainable business model, building a brand, and amplifying its impact and understanding the opportunities to finance growth.
Overall the event enabled delegates to connect with like minded business leaders, investors, industry experts and entrepreneurs, and gain insights into best practices.
If you are interested in learning more about working with CHAP please send us an email using the enquiries form at the bottom of our homepage.
