AfDB and Italian Technical Cooperation Fund extend US$1.18mn grant to boost agriculture value chains in Mozambique
The African Development Bank (AfDB), with financing from the Italian Technical Cooperation Fund, has provided a €990,000 (US$1.18 million) grant to help smaller agro-processing enterprises in Mozambique boost production and quality control.
The project will enable the businesses to better tap into national and regional markets and capitalize on the opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
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The Confederation of Business Associations of Mozambique is the implementing agency.
“We are pleased to receive this grant from the African Development Bank and the Italian Technical Cooperation Fund, which will benefit about 300 agro-processing and agribusiness Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) associations in Mozambique, particularly youth and women-led SMEs operating along the development corridors of Nacala-Beira-Pemba-Lichinga,” said Dr. Agostinho Vuma, President of the Confederation of Business Associations of Mozambique, at the ceremony to hand over the grant funding.
“The grant is apt to further step up the intense bilateral relations in the agriculture area built through the many projects financed by the Italian cooperation and that it can act as a catalyst to extend it to the private sector where it exists a huge and largely untapped potential,” underlined the Italian Ambassador Dr. Gianni Bardini.
African Development Bank country manager Dr. Pietro Toigo noted that the grant would provide critical support to Mozambique, especially amid the socio-economic challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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“We are pleased to partner with the CTA and the Government of Italy to support Mozambican SMEs recover from the COVID pandemic and scale up their competitiveness, as part of the African Development Bank’s commitment to helping Industrialise Africa and Mozambique,” he said.
The project supports the goals of Mozambique’s Country Strategy Paper (2018-2022), which focuses on two strategic pillars: infrastructure investments that enable transformative inclusive growth and job creation, and agricultural transformation and value chain development.
The Minister of Industry and Trade, Dr. Carlos Alberto Fortes Mesquita, highlighted the importance of such initiatives and their catalytical role in promoting Mozambique’s agriculture modernization and the industrialization of critical sectors of the economy.
In jube 2021, the Bank also approved a US$1 million grant to boost local content and the development of initiatives of small and medium enterprises.
The grant, from the Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund (YEI MDTF), will provide technical and institutional assistance to the Instituto para a Promoção das Pequenas e Médias Empresas, or IPEME, for the direct support of start-ups and Small Medium Enterprises , with a particular focus on youth-led and women-owned in business.
The Mozambique YWEB Start-Up Project with the IPEME which in English stands for The Institute for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises will be a multisector local content initiative focusing on tourism, manufacturing, agriculture, ICT, health, and transport, emphasizing youth-led and women businesses.
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