The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has launched a market platform program dubbed Agriculture Dealroom which seeks to convene sector stakeholders to support governments and Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) with access to finance and partnership opportunities.
The project will see AGRA working hand in with different partners like CASA, Center for Agriculture Transformation (CAT) and Malawi Investment Trade Center (MITC) as they seek to create market channels for SME’s.
Speaking at the launch, the Country Representative for AGRA Sophie Chitedze said the Agriculture Dealroom will provide opportunities for local investors to look at what they are interested in supporting the SME’s.
Chitedze added that the programs is an important catalyst for the realization of goal number one for the Malawi 2063.
“We have been part of the process of the development of Malawi 2063 and we also participate in the development partners forum of food security and Agriculture and we also participate in the private sectors forum as well so that we understand whatever is happening as priorities at all levels.
“We have worked closely with the National Planning Commission which was responsible for the putting together of the Malawi 2063 even now we are looking at how we can ensure that our partnerships contributes to Malawi 2063 focused on Agriculture productivity and commercialization which is the first pillar under the 10 year implementation plan for Malawi,” said Chitedze
Center for Agriculture Transformation Director of Science and Technology Dr. Geoffrey Kananji believes working in partnerships will create room for donors in the Agriculture sector.
“As the Center for Agricultural Transformation we strongly believe in partnerships in as far as we are concerned this the way to go and we have evidence on the ground because as CAT we are a science technology and incubation centre of excellence and our mandate is to ensure we reach out to smallholder farmers to make decisions that are well informed economically based on data so inoder for CAT to reach out to small holder farmers we know we dont have the muscle, we don’t have capacity as an organization but we strongly think that if we work in partnerships this is going to create a very good platform so that other donors, other players in the Agriculture sector come together and we zeal in and look at what are financial challenges and what needs to be done to address such challenges,” said Kananji
On his part, Paul Gwengele, the Chief Executive Officer of Malawi Investment and Trade Center said: “This is a good development what we want to see is that businesses improve so in a way we want productivity to increase in the country and then making sure that the small medium enterprise businesses are are able to operate efficiently and effectively maybe I need to mention the partnership between AGRA and MITC is very cruicial in this particular mission”
The program has been launched under the theme “Operationalizing the Agribusiness Dealroom through Collaborative Approach”.
