Sierra Leone: The African Development Bank has launched the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) platform which is aimed at linking the continent’s Small and Medium Enterprises to investment opportunities. The agriculture matching platform initiative has the tendency to link more than 4,000 actors in the sector to investment and networking opportunities.
The bank in its statement said, their incoming Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Beth Dunford, and Director for Agricultural Finance and Rural Infrastructure Atsuko Toda, joined development leaders to launch this year’s African Green Revolution Forum Agribusiness (AGRA) Deal Room.
Dunford, in her virtual keynote remark acknowledged, “across Africa, there is a growing class of ‘agripreneurs’ who are looking for investment partnerships, technical knowhow, and financing to scaleup their business.” She revealed, “The Bank is excited to grow its partnership to this initiative hence, the agribusiness Deal Room compliments our efforts to expand finance for agribusiness to enable small and medium enterprise to grow and attract new and innovative sources of sustainable capital.”
The Bank incoming Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, revealed, the platform aligns with the Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy, which according to her seeks to ensure that the growth of the agricultural sector includes food security, and encourages inclusive growth by involving more women and youth. She reiterated the Bank support of the Agribusiness Deal Room signals a commitment to a collective vision to accelerate Africa’s food system transformation.
She assured, “In my new capacity with the Bank, I am looking forward to working with the AGRF, and so many partners with us online, to see these food systems become more sustainable and more resilient.”
However, the Deputy President for AGRA, Fadel Ndiame, expressed optimism on the huge potential of the sector on the continent which he described as one that remains ‘unmet,’ despite the agriculture potential engine of the continent economies. The deputy President said, “We designed the Deal Room to build the capacities of SMEs while at the same time connecting them with sources of financing. We are looking for investments and partnerships that will unlock the sector’s potential,” confirmed the deputy president.
MK/05/07/2021
