The Regional Head of AGRA West Africa, Forster Boateng has called on stakeholders to promote women-led agribusiness towards transforming Africa’s agriculture sector.
According to him, women play critical role in the transformation agenda in the continent. He indicated that women are actors in numerous agricultural value chains, offering huge potential for their participation in market.
However, he said women voices are not being heard in the agriculture sector. He also noted that 50% of women in the value chain are deprived of productive resources. This thereby exacerbate their vulnerability to poverty, he stated.
He therefore called for partnership from the private sector, development partners and NGOs to help promote women’s agribusinesses.
Foster Boateng made the call whiles speaking at the launch of the VALUE4HER program in Accra, Ghana.
In her remarks, Sabdiyo Dido said AGRA instituted the VALUE4HER for women in agriculture and agribusiness to assist them to become productive. She also maintained that the program seeks to amplify women’s voice in the Agriculture sector in Africa.
According to her, the assistance comes in the form of skills upgrade, capital and financial assistance, and access to new technology. To clarify, Sabdiyo Dido is the Head of Gender and Inclusiveness at AGRA.
The Executive Director of Development Action Association, Lydia Sasu bemoaned the low level of credit accessibility for women in Agribusiness. She explained that only a meagre 10% of women can access credit facilities to fund their businesses. She also stated that only a few women have access to lands in the country.
The Country Manager of the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership, Nana Aisha Mohammad, underscored the need for increased technology in the agribusiness industry for women. He explained that her organization is in talks with Vodafone to help bridge the technology gap experienced in the country.
AGRA’s VALUE4HER Program
The VALUE4HER program is powered by VALUE4HERConnect, Africa’s first women in agribusiness digital market place. The program seeks to increase the performance of women Agri enterprises, through access to finance and investments, knowledge and skills, networking and building women’s collective voice.
It also seeks to expand women’s presence in markets where they trade, access new markets nationally, regionally, internationally and to acquire the capital, business and technical partners and resources required to support their growing business.
The program has four main key pillars: the Women2Women Community pillar, the Women2Market pillar, the Women2Finance pillar, and the Capacity Building Resource pillar. The Women2Women community pillar allows women to chat, interact, trade and share information. The Women2Finance pillar seeks to provide information on agribusiness focusing on financiers, including banks, investment funds, crowdfunding, among others.
Capacity Building Resource pillar also showcases human capital development resources, including online and offline training and educational programs; webinar; skills development consultancies and incubators/accelerators.
Lastly, the Women2Market provides buyer and supplier information, commodity prices, market-entry requirements, branding, labelling, among others.
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