The fourth edition of the Agribusiness Deal Room has been launched on Tuesday June 29, 2021 at a virtual event organized by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
The Agribusiness Deal Room is a match making platform at the annual AGRF Summit that convenes different stakeholders to facilitate partnerships and investments in African agriculture. The Deal Room specifically supports governments and companies with access to finance and partnership opportunities.
Since it was founded in 2018, the Deal Room has directly provided over 400 companies with targeted investor match-making and hosted more than 800 companies to explore networking opportunities. It has also supported 17 governments with investor engagements. Over the last three years, public and private actors have jointly presented an aggregate capital of US$ 11 billion in investment opportunities at the Deal Room.
“The huge potential of the agricultural sector on the continent remains unmet, with agriculture being the engine of African economies. 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 across the continent,” said Dr. Fadel Ndiame, Deputy President, AGRA
Providing keynote remarks Dr. Beth Dunford, incoming Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the African Development Bank said that across the continent, there is a growing class of “agripreneurs” who are looking for investment, partnerships, technical knowhow and financing to scale up their business.“The African Development Bank is excited to grow its partnership to this initiative. The Agribusiness Deal Room compliments our efforts to expand finance for agribusiness to enable SMEs to grow and attract new and innovative sources of sustainable capital,” she said.
This year, the AGRF Agribusiness Deal Room will focus on addressing the challenges in agricultural lending to SMEs and investments towards government flagship priorities, as one of the strategies for meeting the objectives of continental and global frameworks including the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, Africa’s Agenda 2063, the Malabo Declaration, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).
“Kenya welcomes investors and is well-positioned to provide you with the right tools and dedicated support to ensure that your investment projects remain sustainable and profitable,” said Dr. Moses Ikiara, Managing Director, Kenya Investment Authority
