The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity’s Agribusiness Challenge Fund is aimed at SMEs in the agriculture sector that can create work opportunities at scale for young women and men, young persons with disabilities, and refugee youth.
The Agribusiness Challenge Fund will provide SMEs with innovative and commercially viable agribusinesses across 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to receive support to upscale their businesses in a bid to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people, with particular focus on young women.
Selected SMEs will receive support from the fund, including grants ranging from US$500,000 to US$2.5 million, disbursed over a three-year period, based on the applicants’ development stage, scalability and business model, in accordance with agreed periodic milestone targets.
The Agribusiness Challenge Fund targets SMEs in the following 20 Sub-Saharan Africa countries: Kenya, Benin, Burundi, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
“The agriculture sector presents great opportunities for innovative SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa to grow, with opportunities to create dignified and fulfilling work for young people, especially young women, young persons with disabilities and refugee youth,” said Smita Sanghrajka, Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity engagement partner.
Applications are open here until November 22.
