African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) holds its annual conference in Nairobi, to
discuss its results from 2013 and to announce new partnership with the World Bank.
NAIROBI, Kenya (28 August 2014) — Over 740,000 households, or 3.7 million people, are
US$90 better off as a result of the African Enterprise Challenge Fund’s (AECF) activities in 2013.
These are some of the results being discussed as part of the AECF’s Annual Conference currently
taking place in Nairobi.
Over the next two days more than 200 people from across Africa will meet as part of the AECF’s
Annual Conference, where as well as hearing the AECF’s results from the last 12 months, participants
will be discussing how Africa’s small to medium enterprises can form stronger business-to-business
partnerships to help them thrive.
Key speakers at the Annual Conference include the CEO of the BIDCO Group, Vimal B Shah and
Prof. Rudy Rabbinge, University Professor Emeritus in Sustainable Development and Food Security
at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Formed in 2008, the AECF is a US$250m fund, which provides grants and interest-free loans to
businesses to implement innovative, commercially viable, high impact projects in rural Africa. AECF is
currently funding 156 projects across 23 countries covering agribusiness, financial services,
information services, climate change adaptation and renewable energy.
“Our goal is to make markets work better for economically disadvantaged people, we (AECF) help
projects get off the ground which are sound and can operate without continued support,” AECF’s
Executive Manager, André Dellevoet said.
“We are focussed on creating change that is both sustainable and long term.”
During the conference, the AECF will also announce a new partnership with the World Bank’s
entrepreneurship program InfoDev, which will enable agro-processing entrepreneurs in Africa to
become competitive by providing them with access to capital, markets and knowledge needed to
transform and grow their business from to a mature medium-sized and sustainable enterprise.
The AECF is a special partnership initiative of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
AGRA was established by the Rockefeller Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The current group of donors are the UK Department for International Development, the Netherlands
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Australian Department for Aid and Trade, the Danish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, The Swedish Agency for International Development and the International Fund for
Agricultural Development. The Fund’s capital base currently stands at US$ 250 million. It is hoped
that this will grow to US$ 500 million in the next 10 years.
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