Through the AgriFI Kenya Challenge, Sereni Fries, Bubayi Products Ltd and Prosoya Kenya Ltd have received the grant that will create jobs and support agriculture.
European Union Ambassador to Kenya Henriette Geiger says the three companies have been chosen based on their innovative ideas and their social impact.
Three Small and Medium Enterprise firms have received Sh190 million from the European Union Fund to support innovation and growth of the country’s agri-enterprise sector.
Through the AgriFI Kenya Challenge, Sereni Fries, Bubayi Products Ltd and Prosoya Kenya Ltd have received the grant that will create jobs and support agriculture.
European Union Ambassador to Kenya Henriette Geiger says the three companies have been chosen based on their innovative ideas and their social impact.
“We expect this grant to go a long way in creating more jobs and integrating smallholder farmers in value chains while introducing climate-smart agriculture innovative practices,” says the envoy.
Sereni Fries is a potato processor and producer of a range of popular potato chip snacks, Prosoya Kenya manufactures animal feeds from crops including sorghum and millet while Bubayi Ltd processes and sells certified bean seed.
The AgriFI Kenya Challenge Fund has provided grant financing to 37 agro-enterprises which have created close to 4,000 new jobs, and reached 100,000 smallholder farmers and pastoralists in 12 different value chains across Kenya.
These value chains include dairy, horticulture, aquaculture, cotton, pyrethrum, coffee, sorghum, nuts, gums, potatoes, apiculture, cereals and pulses.
The funds have leveraged Sh4.4 billion in private sector investment from commercial banks in the country, international financing institutions and companies’ own resources.
In addition to the financial support, the awardees have benefitted from technical assistance on enterprise development, social inclusion and market linkages.
Managed by Self Help Africa and Imani Development Limited, the AgriFI Kenya Challenge Fund is an initiative of the European Union and co-funded by SlovakAid to support productive and market-integrated smallholder agriculture through the provision of financial support.
The fund aims at improving the capacity of smallholder farmers and pastoralists to practice environmentally sustainable and climate-smart agriculture as a business in inclusive value chains.
Evelyn Gandani, Self Help Africa’s country director underscored the need for development partners to support to the agriculture sector.
“The private sector is the main driver and creator of close to 40 percent of jobs in the agriculture sector by creating opportunities for smallholder farmers and that is why we are implementing programmes like AgriFI to incentivise private sector investments through bankable businesses which in turn contribute to the country’s GDP,” she said.
Through access to agricultural inputs, market linkages, improved seed varieties, climate-smart practices and digitised agricultural sector information, small-scale farmers, have progressively diversified into competitive value chains thus improving their household incomes and livelihoods.
The AgriFI Kenya Challenge Fund is a European Union initiative to support productive and market-integrated smallholder agriculture through the provision of financial support worth EUR 18,000,000 to agro–enterprises.
The Challenge Fund is part of the wider AgriFI programme funded under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) to unlock, accelerate and leverage investments within value chains in Kenya.
