THE MASTERCARD FOUNDATION FUND FOR RESILIENCE AND PROSPERITY CALLS FOR PROPOSALS FROM AFRICAN SMES AND ENTREPRENEURS IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity has launched an agribusiness challenge fund. It is calling for proposals from small and medium enterprises ( 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 Fundwill provide SMEs with innovative and commercially viable agribusinesses across twenty countries in Sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to receive support to upscale their businesses. This is in a bid to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people, with particular focus on young women.

Funding structure

Selected SMEs will receive support from the fund, including grants ranging from US$ 500,000 to US$ 2,500,000, disbursed over a three -year period. This will be based on the applicants’ development stage, scalability and business model, in accordance with agreed periodic milestone targets. The funding structure will be determined on a case-by-case basis after evaluating proposals and organizations. Additional support to successful applicants will include tailored technical assistance in alignment with FRP objectives over the 3-year period.

The Agribusiness Challenge Fund is the firstof severalsector-focused calls for proposals that the Fund will launch focused on thepotential of the SMEs to create work opportunities at scale. It targets SMEs in the following twenty 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 Mrs. Smita Sanghrajka, Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity engagement partner.

She further stated that agri-SMEs in Sub- Saharan Africa lack enough financial support to scale and need capacity building that may lead to better business practices and investor readiness.“The Mastercard Foundation is collaborating with a network of partners to create job opportunities for young people across Sub-Saharan Africa, in line with our Young Africa Works strategy, ” said Mr. Daniel Hailu, Executive Director of Pan-African Programs at the Mastercard Foundation. “ The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity offers a fantastic opportunity for SMEs looking for support to expand and simultaneously generate employment for the youth,” he added.

Proposals

The Agribusiness Challenge Fund call for proposalsis currently open and will close on November 22, 2024, with periodic collections of applications to be assessed every twelve weeks.The challenge will be open to SME applications as long as they meet the eligibility criteria and their projects are being implemented in at least one of the twenty focus countries the Fund is targeting.Unsuccessful applicants will have the opportunity to refine and resubmit their applications for subsequent collections.

The Fund was established following the successful conclusion of the Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity, which was in operation for eight years from 2014 to 2023 and supported thirty eight participant businesses from fifteen countries in Africa. These businesses were able to innovate and scale financial products and services targeting the rural population and further enablefinancial inclusion for over 5.3 million people.