Women constitute a greater percentage of the working force in the Agric sector in Africa, yet it is strenuous for them to get financial assistance. To assist women in the Agribusiness sector to sustain and upscale production, Guzakuza has launched a platform called Crowdfunding to raise a reasonable amount to support 100 women across the African continent.
At the launch on a Zoom, the Executive Director of Guzakuza, Nana Adjoa A. Sifa mentioned that young women in Agribusiness find it difficult to scale production due to factors like lack of finance, inadequate technical know-how, market access limitation and a lack of Mentorship
She continued that the year has taken a paradigm shift. The sudden outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic has hit most of the sponsors badly that the sponsors are not able to fund this year’s Ignite programme.
Irrespective of the pandemic and its challenges, Guzakuza believes this is an opportunity to introduce a crowdfunding platform initiative to raise 9,000 pounds to support 100 women in Agribusiness in Africa to upscale production to solve fractional food security issues on the African continent amid and post Covid-19.
“We are raising funds in the next three months to support one hundred (100) young women Agribusiness founders (our target group) who are being faced with financial and personal challenges due to the pandemic and are seeking tools and resources to help them deal with the uncertainty”, Nana Adjoa said.
CROWDFUNDING Platforms are;
Alex Pay.
https://alexpay.africa/supporting-100-women-in-agribusiness
GoFundMe.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/covid19-support-women-in-agribusiness-ignite
Facebook.
https://web.facebook.com/donate/291767928709167/?_rdc=1&_rdr
As part of the platform launch, the call for the application of Ignite 2020 was launched to call on all women across Africa who qualify to apply.
“We want to make this whole experience easier and make Ignite 2020 free for every woman in Agribusiness who needs it. This will enable many young women in agribusiness on the African continent to build their own capacities, receive toolkits, relevant resources, and a community of like-minded peers. In effect, they will be able to build disruptive agribusinesses that can withstand uncertainties and in effect be able to produce food for the world’s population”, she recounted.
Ignite is a Guzakuza initiative for young women in Agribusiness which is designed to promote job and wealth creation. Every year 15 women are selected across the African continent to participate in this game-changing initiative.
It is a business incubation programme that provides comprehensive support for African women in agribusiness. The programme is soliciting entries from women in the sector who desire deeper exposure to opportunities and possibilities in the sector.
