The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity has selected its first cohort of 10 agribusiness participants across seven Sub-Saharan African countries under its Agribusiness Challenge Fund. The three-year programme is designed to support businesses with the potential to create dignified work opportunities for young people with limited financial means, including young women, persons with disabilities and refugees.
The selected projects cover several agricultural value chains, including bananas, coffee, dairy, honey, palm oil, seeds, staple foods and indigenous botanicals. Support will be provided over three years, with funding released against agreed milestones and based on each participant’s progress.
Supporting inclusive agricultural businesses
Afrigetics Botanicals will work in South Africa and Lesotho to strengthen medicinal plant value chains. The project focuses on ethical harvesting, processing and export of indigenous African botanicals. It will use fair-trade partnerships and responsible sourcing to increase incomes and employment for marginalised youth and rural harvesting communities.
In Rwanda, Fisher Global Limited focuses on sustainable farming, post-harvest processing and export-oriented manufacturing, including chilli production. The company aims to increase value addition and market access while creating employment for young people with limited financial means.
Uganda’s Mac Bee Honey Harvest Company SMC Limited is on a mission to strengthen the apiculture value chain by working with rural farmers and community groups. It will provide training, affordable climate-smart beekeeping equipment and market linkages. Its work covers honey, propolis and beeswax, with the aim of creating jobs and improving incomes in underserved communities.
Mambo Coffee Company Limited supports young people, particularly women, involved in coffee farming, processing and export in Tanzania. Through cooperative partnerships and access to premium international markets, the company aims to improve incomes and strengthen the resilience of smallholder coffee-growing communities.
Mariseth Farms Limited will develop Ghana’s palm oil value chain through integrated processing and improved resource efficiency. Its products include Fresh Fruit Bunches, Crude Palm Oil, Palm Kernel Oil and byproducts such as palm kernel cake, shells and biomass. The company also serves markets in Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin.
Masaka Creamery Limited is working to strengthen Rwanda’s dairy sector through inclusive sourcing and value addition. It produces yoghurt, fermented milk, butter, sour cream, fresh cream, ghee and mascarpone. More than 60% of its workforce comprises youth and deaf individuals, while smallholder farmers are integrated into its supply chain.
Expanding opportunities across agricultural value chains
In Tanzania, Maua Mazuri Tissue Cultures Limited will increase access to disease-free, high-yield banana planting material. Its project aims to raise farm productivity, reduce losses from pests and diseases and improve farmer incomes while creating employment.
Pro Seed Limited works with smallholder farmers in South Sudan to produce improved maize, sorghum, groundnut, sesame and cowpea seeds. The company will provide foundation seeds, training, technical support and guaranteed markets to help reduce production risks and strengthen food security.
Raphael Group Limited will source agricultural products from about 20,000 smallholder farmers in Tanzania. It will process rice, beans, groundnuts, sunflower oil, fortified maize flour and sorghum for local and regional markets across East and Southern Africa.
Rohi Company Limited will strengthen Tanzania’s banana value chain by sourcing from more than 500 predominantly women smallholder farmers. It will turn surplus bananas into crisps, flour, tea, soap and jam. Its distribution network includes more than 600 women-led wholesalers and retailers across 27 regions.
The Mastercard Foundation Fund said the cohort reflects the potential of agribusiness to open pathways for young people to earn, learn and build more secure livelihoods. Further reviews under the Agribusiness Challenge Fund are continuing, with additional participants expected to be announced on a rolling basis.
