East Africa Agribusiness Investment Summit

10th - 11th December 2013. Kampala. This Summit was organised by Focus on East Africa, and gathered Entrepreneurs, Business leaders, Investors & Government Representatives, and those wanting to get a step ahead in Agribusiness.

The Summit aimed to promote private sector Agribusiness development as a means to the fight against poverty in the region as well as a key to the region’s food security. Emphasis was placed on value addition, intra-regional trade, partnerships and value chain development.

aBi Trust joined the European Union in sponsoring

Svend Kaare Jensen, 

Chief Executive Officer, 

aBi Trust and aBi Finance

this Agribusiness event. The Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi) Trust is supporting agribusiness development in the private sector to achieve the objective of the Government of Uganda’s Competitiveness and Investment Climate Strategy (CICS). The aBi is being implemented in cooperation with other donors, with Danida as the lead partner. The other partners are:

• The European Commission (EC)
• The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
• The Belgium Development Cooperation (BTC)
• The German Development Bank (KfW)
• The US’ Agency for International Development (USAID)
• The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) 

Additional international governmental donors as well as private donors have expressed interest in participating in the aBi Trust. 

Highlight on some speakers:

Kristian SCHMIDT

• Ralph von Kaufmann, Agribusiness Incubation, Foresight and Livestock Systems
• Sean Paavo Krepp, Country Director, Grameen Foundation-Uganda
• Stephen Muchiri, Chief Executive Officer, Eastern Africa Farmers Federation
• Pål Dale, Managing Director, The Voxtra East Africa Agribusiness Fund
• Kristian SCHMIDT, Head of the European Commission/EU Delegation to Uganda

The East Africa Agribusiness Awards is the key platform for celebrating excellence and best practices in East African Agribusiness. The Awards are designed to identify and recognise achievements by the different key players in the region’s agribusiness. They celebrate the innovative agribusiness leaders, transforming East African agribusiness, who have found transformational and sustainable ways that are both replicable and scalable to help improve the lives of millions around the region.

1

Sanjay Sethi, the Chief Executive Officer for Food and Beverages of the Export Trading Group has been awarded the Africa food Prize 2013 for this noteworthy contribution in helping produce more food for Africa’s poor people. Sethi has implemented various end to end supply chain integration projects for food and agriculture Africa as well as in India. He brought up small holder farming communities in many developing economies in Africa and supported them with modern technologies including drip irrigation.

He has provided integrated solutions to farmers in Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi, Angola, Uganda, Sudan, Mozambique, Gabon, Ghana and Burkina Faso. His actions have immensely improved the agricultural infrastructure, irrigation technologies, adoption of new technology and Good Agricultural Practices followed by farmers and he has been lauded as thoughtful and creative Agribusiness Professional who has helped many Governments to fine tune their blueprints for agriculture.

Upcoming:

Agribusiness East Africa

28 – 29 January 2014, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

See programme 28/01/2014: Panel discussion: Opportunities and pitfalls to a commercially viable East African agricultural industry with Stephen Muchiri, Chief Executive Officer, Eastern African Farmers Federation, Kenya

Global Forum for food and Agriculture Berlin 2014
18th Jan 2014. Berlin. Food Security: Identify Challenges - Increase Resilience.

Africa Agribusiness Forum 2014
28th - 29th April 2014, Vienna, Austria
Case-studies and success stories and innovations in the African agribusiness sector.