Inspiring female CEOs in African agri and food industry
The African food and beverage market is projected to triple to $1 trillion by 2030. Growing market demand can be addressed by local and regional entrepreneurship and more productive and business oriented agriculture. The 2SCALE program builds on these opportunities and supports business propositions from local entrepreneurs, farmer cooperatives, traders and processing firms. Partnerships are being built resulting in agribusiness clusters and commercial value chains that can compete effectively in the market, benefiting producers, processors, distributors, retailers and consumers. The 2SCALE team provides training to farmers, and creates partnerships with African and international enterprises to ensure that all elements – technology, organizational capacity, market access, credit, extension advice – are in place. The program also enables private firms to find business opportunities for sourcing products from, or selling agro-inputs to, smallholder farmers in Africa.
The 2SCALE partnerships aim for inclusive entrepreneurship – viable, equitable agribusiness partnerships that meet financial as well as social development goals of all people involved in the supply chains. This includes a focus on business empowerment (strengthening farmers’ ability to negotiate), inclusiveness (ensuring that no groups are excluded) and last but not least gender. The goal is to reach 40 percent women’s participation and of the 327.679 participating smallholder farmers 31% are women. Moreover, 36% of the currently involved SMEs are led by women.
Four of these female CEOs have visited the Netherlands in the last week of October and presented their businesses during the conference ‘Food for Thought, Made in Africa, for Africa’. In addition, they had the opportunity to meet with numerous Dutch entrepreneurs to discuss commercial opportunities.
These CEOs have extremely inspiring stories to share and are role models for all women in the African agri and food sector. Here I would like to highlight two stories. Additional information on these and other entrepreneurs can be found on https://iba.ventures/2Scale/ and http://2scale.org/
Ruth Okiror of Acila enterprises:
“If I look at my education, I would not have thought to be where I am now”
After I dropped out of school when I was 17, I started a local brewery and a restaurant with very little money. I had many entrepreneurial ideas and took courses in business management, marketing, finance, customer care, sales, farmer groups management and agro input product knowledge. With this knowledge I started Acila in 2008 and we were one of the first companies in Uganda pioneering new farming practices, resulting in higher yields for the farmers and then we needed to find a market for these higher yields.
I got connected to Nile Breweries that required sorghum, so I started to mobilize more farmers. At that stage we got involved in 2SCALE, which was good because we had a lot of challenges. I was looking for a machine to process the produce for instance. I asked the 2SCALE team if they could recommend me to the World Food Program (WFP) to get a loan to buy a good machine. They wrote a recommendation and to back that up, 2SCALE already trained the farmers on market linkage, value addition, farming practices and so on, which was a requirement of WFP as well. Out of 747 applicants applying for the same machine I was selected! The machine costs USD 280.000 of which Acila is paying 50% in a 5-year loan, WFP is paying the other 50%. Working with the machine has improved the quality of the product considerably up to international standards. The 2SCALE team also trained our agents, associations and farmers in post-harvest handling. Currently, Acila is one of the top three suppliers of sorghum to Nile Breweries, Uganda’s largest brewery.
With the support of 2SCALE we were also able to establish a network of distributors for agro inputs. The distributors come to us from various communities to collect the inputs. We give them a reduced price, to cover their transportation costs and provide commission. With this distribution network we created many additional jobs and provided easier access to high-quality inputs.
Ruth Okiror sharing her business insights with Dutch entrepreneurs at the 2SCALE conference
“Acila’s women employees are committed and loyal”
I have 14 employees and we work with 200 farmer groups of about 30 farmers each, so 6000 farmers in total. We also have 35 casual workers, who operate the machinery when it is very busy. Six out of the 14 permanent employees are women. In the office we are all women, accept from the accountant. Women commit themselves to the work, they are honest and loyal. I also feel that the position of women should be strengthened. Acila enterprise has improved the livelihoods of many farmers, agents, distributors and employees. They improved their housing, means of transportation and their employability. We are realizing considerable changes, I can see this when I visit their houses. Some of the distributors have even opened their own shops and have become successful business people themselves.
“It is my dream to be successful in business and to be the largest employer for the youth”
The dream I have for Acila is to become one of the biggest suppliers of agro-inputs in Uganda. I want to be producing my own seeds as well, so we can supply to our farmers to avoid letting them work with infected seeds. If I look at my education, I would not have thought to be where I am now. But I acquired a lot of knowledge through working for Acila. My dream is to be successful. I want to be the largest employer for the youth. People graduate but there are no jobs. Job creation is the main dream I have for Acila!
Ruth Kinoti, CEO of Shalem Investments:
“I want Shalem Investment to be a sustainable business, transforming the lives of smallholder farmers”
I grew up in a family of farmers. However, I graduated as a teacher and when I started working at a boarding school I noticed that beans and maize formed a significant part of the school meals. So I approached the school administration and proposed that my family and neighbors could supply the school with produce. Before I knew, I was providing 10 schools with produce from smallholders in our network. That is how Shalem Investments started. Now we market products for over 7000 smallholder farmers, mostly maize, beans, sorghum and soybeans. We identify the markets and sell their produce with a good profit. The idea is to commercialize the farmers. We cluster them and their produce to enter markets which would have been difficult to reach for individual smallholders.
After 12 years of combining activities I was confident enough to leave teaching and to concentrate on my business.
Ruth Kinoti sharing her business insights with Dutch entrepreneurs at the 2SCALE conference
“We have seen the ability of women to work on various tasks under high pressure”
I see myself mainly as a coordinator and supervisor. My main objective is to ensure a profitable business, but in a sustainable way. The only way to do this sustainably is, in my opinion, to treat the smallholder as a key partner of our business. As we grow the companies’ profitability we also grow the farmers’ capacity to do business. Apart from the roles of coordinator and supervisor, I see myself also as an integrator. We’re dealing with NGOs, governments and cross-organization projects, such as 2SCALE.
After we joined 2SCALE in 2014, we have transformed the way we do business, it helped us to define a business model and 2SCALE supported us with business and financial planning. Prior to 2SCALE, with a sound business model we can define our future to a certain extent. For example, in 2013 we were affected by a government tax imposed on beer containing sorghum. We saw a big decrease of sales and the market for sorghum nearly collapsed, which was and still is a key market for us. 2SCALE helped us to identify and define new purposes and markets for sorghum so we would rely less on the beer market.
We supply mainly to agri-food processors, which can be processors that produce food for human consumption, as well as animal consumption. Our largest customer at the moment is East-Africa Breweries: they consume more sorghum than any other company. Our core-business will continue to be the intermediary between farmers and markets, and grow the farmers’ production capacities. In addition, we intend to establish a factory, where we can process the farmers’ produce into food and feed products. The idea is to provide the farmers a facility on which they can rely.
Currently, we have 7 people working for Shalem Investments. Of the 7 employees, 4 are women and most of the staff is under the age of 35. We prefer to hire women and this is not because I am a woman myself. Over the years we have seen the ability of women to work on various tasks under high pressure without complaining and in general women are more committed.
This blog is a part of the November 2015 series on Gender and Inclusive Business, which includes analysis, interviews and projects on how inclusive business is tackling gender inequality around the world. Join the discussion.