AFRICA'S NO.1 FOOD, BEVERAGE & MILLING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

Kenyan footwear design house Pine Kazi turns fruits waste into shoes, bags prize from AfDB

Mar 30, 2021Mar 30, 2021 Editor

KENYA – Pine Kazi, a women-led Kenyan shoe design house converting pineapple leaf and recycled rubber into fashionable footwear, has been named as the winner of the Fashionomics Africa initiative. Fashionomics Africa is an initiative of the African Development Bank in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program, the Parsons School of Design and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, aimed to increase Africa’s participation in the global textile and fashion industry value chains – with an emphasis on women and youth. Being its inaugural contest, its aim was to honour African…

AfDB appoints Atsuko TODA as acting Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development

Mar 17, 2021Mar 17, 2021 Editor

AFRICA – The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has announced the appointment of Ms. Atsuko TODA as Acting Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, effective 16 March 2021. She takes over the position from Wambui Gichuri who was also appointed on acting capacity from 5th July 2020. The position was left vacant following the resignation of Dr Jennifer Blanke on purely family reasons, intending to rejoin her family in Switzerland after a very fulfilling time at the bank. Atsuko, a Japanese citizen, is a seasoned professional with over…

AfDB, ICRAF come to the aid of Ivorian cocoa farmers battling climate change

Jan 29, 2021Jan 29, 2021 Editor

IVORY COAST – The African Development Bank (AfDB) has partnered with World Agroforestry – ICRAF, to undertake a climate resilient cocoa farming project in two Ivorian smallholder farmers’ communities located in Soubre and Vavoua, currently grappling with declining yields caused by climate change and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. ICRAF is a centre of science and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Under the initiative the two smallholder farmer communities will receive climate-resilient and sustainable agroforestry assistance which will generate nature-based solutions that…

AfDB grants Burundi US$20m to support farmers mitigate climate change

Dec 10, 2020Dec 10, 2020 Editor

BURUNDI – The African Development Bank (AfDB) has granted Burundi US$20.55 million to support farmers affected by climate change phenomenon. The project to support the sustainable development of agriculture and livestock value chains in Burundi (PADCAE-B) is expected to start soon after the initiative receives the slated funding. Part of the financing amounting to US$12.83 million, comes from the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the AfDB while the rest of the package, US$7.72 million, comes from Pillar 1 of the Transition Support Facility (TSF), the bank’s financing…

Kenyan government partners with AfDB, launches US$20m youth agribusiness fund

Nov 24, 2020Nov 25, 2020 Editor

KENYA – The government of Kenya is spearheading the development of agribusiness enterprises in the country with the launch of Ksh2.2 billion (US$20m) fund, targeting the youth. The project will be carried out through the Empowering Novel Agribusiness-Led Employment (ENABLE) Programme, co-funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the government. It will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and aims to create youth agripreneurs through skill acquisition and creating an enabling environment in which they can become owners of profitable agribusinesses. This will be attained through training, nurturing…

African Development Bank names winners of US$120K AgriPitch competition

Nov 20, 2020Nov 20, 2020 Editor

AFRICA – The African Development Bank has crowned the founder of a cassava processing business in Kenya, co-founder of a novel food processing technology start-up, and the owner of a smallholder farmer food procurement company both from Nigeria as the winners of the US$120,000 AgriPitch competition. The winners were selected in the early start-up, mature start-up and women-empowered businesses categories. Nigeria’s Femu Aiki clinched US$40,000, the largest portion of the seed capital under mature start-ups category with his farm Foodlocker. Foodlocker supports smallholder farmers with technologies for the production of…

AfDB selects 25 finalists for AgriPitch competition inching closer to bagging US$120k funding

Nov 10, 2020Nov 10, 2020 Editor

AFRICA – The African Development Bank has selected twenty-five young African agripreneurs for the final level of the AgriPitch competition. Submission for agribusiness plans for the competition closed at the end of October, with the AgriPitch organizers highlighting that they received more than 2,500 applications and evaluated 605 proposals from 30 countries. The finalists, from 12 African nations, submitted promising proposals that best embraced the 2020 theme of Driving Sustainable Nutrition and Gender Inclusivity in Africa’s Agri-Food Systems: Youth Agripreneurs Seize the Decade. “It is encouraging to see that almost…

AfDB appoints Wambui Gichuri as acting vice president for Agriculture, Human and Social Development

Jul 7, 2020Jul 7, 2020 Editor

AFRICA – The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has appointed Wambui Gichuri as Acting Vice President- Agriculture, Human and Social Development, effective 5 July 2020. This follows the resignation of the erstwhile Vice President of Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr Jennifer Blanke, about 4 weeks ago on purely family reasons, she said that she intends to rejoin her family in Switzerland after a very fulfilling time at the bank. Wambui joined the African Development Bank Group in 2018 as Director, Water Development and Sanitation. She currently oversees the Bank’s water…

Rwanda acquires a US$1.1m grant from AfDB to expand its meat value chain

Jun 30, 2020Jul 2, 2020 Editor

RWANDA – The African Development Bank (AfDB) has awarded a US$1.1 million grant to Rwanda to implement the country’s Meat Value Chain Trade Competitiveness Project. The Board of Directors of AfDB approved the grant which will help to expand the east African nation’s meat production value chain, enhance market access and cross border trade and increase the contribution of the sector to the Rwandan economy, highlighted the banks press-release. The grant is awarded from the resources of the African Trade Fund (AfTRA). AfTra is a technical assistance fund with the…

Togo secures US$3m loan from AfDB to support agriculture sector in the wake COVID-19 pandemic

Jun 24, 2020Jun 25, 2020 Editor

TOGO – The Republic of Togo has secured a US$3 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support the county’s agricultural sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The approval of the loan by AfDB’s board enables the funds to be channeled to the Togo Agro-Food Processing Project (PTA-Togo), for the purchase of fertilizers, organic pesticides and seeds for approximately 150,000 smallholder farmers. The implements according to AfDB, will help farmers to handle the effects of COVID-19 during the coming cropping season. Since the World Health Organization declared…