Africa Invest – Scaling up private sector investment to increase agricultural productivity in Africa
Following a successful pilot in Malawi, Africa Invest, an experienced agricultural management company, will roll out its programme of agricultural revitalisation combined with poverty reduction to Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Zambia and Rwanda within two years, with a further seven countries by 2012. Africa Invest’s model of combining large scale commercial farms with financial and technical support for smallholder farmers, using private investment, will help eliminate rural poverty, establish food self sufficiency and stimulate economic growth through investment-led enterprise development.
In Malawi there are 8 large farms covering 2,600 hectares linked to smallholdings covering the remaining 4,000 hectares. This programme has around 2,000 direct employees and engages with around 5,000 smallholder families and has direct impact on around 70,000 Malawians. The extension of this scheme to four more countries will require (at a very conservative estimate) at least a further 8,000 direct employees, 20,000 smallholders and have a direct impact on around 280,000 families.
Anglo American – enterprise hubs in Africa
Anglo American will create up to 25,000 new jobs in up to 1,500 new businesses over 7 years (January 2008 is the base month/year), by establishing a minimum of 12 enterprise development hubs close to major mining operations in host communities in South Africa and in labour sending areas. Anglo will also scale up enterprise development activities in Chile and Brazil.
Entrepreneurs will receive loans and mentoring and potential access to supply chain opportunities, where these are relevant, on a competitive basis. There is an emphasis on enabling poor, marginalised individuals to enter into the mainstream economy, and the new community-based businesses are also expected to involve strong representation of women.
Asda – increased sourcing of local produce from Africa
ASDA will source at least an extra £30 million worth of fresh produce from Africa over the next five years. This will create more sustained employment with trading partners in South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Burkina Faso. Asda hopes to be able to exceed this figure. Specifically, by the end of 2008 Asda will increase its Kenyan flower sourcing by 20% in volume and value terms.
Cadbury – increased productivity in farming in Ghana
Will improve the productivity and incomes of over 1 million cocoa farmers over the next 10 years. They will initially focus on 100 cocoa farming communities in Ghana, reaching 80,000 people and investing £30 million over the next ten years. This is expected to increase farmer productivity by 20% in the first five years, rising to a 100% increase by year ten.
Cisco – agricultural advice to farmers
Cisco, in association with BT and OneWorld, plan to expand the LifeLines service which currently provides productivity enhancing agricultural advice to 40,000 farmers in 700 villages in India. Cisco estimates that the LifeLines service can be developed over five years to provide information on pesticides, crop yields, animal husbandry and market opportunities to 500 000 farmers in Kenya.
CitiGroup – bringing down the cost of remittances
Citi has developed a ground-breaking remittance solution, “Remit As You Earn (RAYE)”: an innovative, simple, secure and cost-effective means of sending money overseas. As well as launching the RAYE service to its own UK-based employees later this year, Citi is currently in discussion with major public and private sector organisations in the UK about rolling out the RAYE service, which could provide their employees with savings of around 50% compared to the average transaction charge from other UK providers.
With over 3.3 million diaspora employed by corporate and public-sector organisations in the UK, there is enormous potential to scale up this innovation. Globally, remittances are worth at least $240 billion (£120 billion) to poor countries – more than double the $106.5 billion provided in global aid.
Coca Cola – entrepreneurship and jobs in Africa
In response to the Business Call to Action, Coca-Cola and its bottling partners are investing in Africa to find ways they can expand and upgrade their Manual Distribution Centres to generate more jobs, incomes and enterprise in local economies – currently 1800 of these independently run businesses directly employ 7500 people and generate revenue of US$ 0.5 billion.
The lessons learned initially in Tanzania will be applied in Coca-Cola’s distribution network across the African continent.
By leveraging and replicating this improved model, by 2010 Coca-Cola in Africa aims to:
• Create between 1300 and 2000 new independent distribution businesses
• Create between 5300 and 8400 new jobs
• Generate new revenue of between $320 million and $520 million
Diageo – local sourcing of raw materials
Diageo will develop the cultivation of sorghum for brewing in Cameroon, identifying suitable strains, training farmers, providing finance and developing storage and transport infrastructure. They will provide a sustainable market for local grain, substituting as much as possible of the 16,000 tonnes that Diageo currently imports. The project is expected to benefit around 10,000 people, raising agricultural standards, yields and farm incomes.
Ericsson- mobile innovation centre in Sub-Saharan Africa
Ericsson will establish an Innovation Centre in sub-Saharan Africa to develop mobile applications that will benefit society as a whole, but with a special focus on meeting the needs of poor and rural populations. The initiative will focus on solutions in health, education, agriculture and small business development, and is another important step in Ericsson’s ongoing commitment to support the achievement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
Map International- increased access to finance in Uganda
Map have pledged to provide access to electronic bank accounts for more than 2 million people in Uganda over the next two years, many of whom live in rural areas. Fast, easy and secure access to banking services will greatly reduce the time and effort required to make and receive payments, generating substantial economic efficiencies. In addition electronic and mobile banking technology should remove much of the risk to vulnerable individuals, especially women, associated with handling cash.
Microsoft – new Innovation Centres in Africa
Microsoft will open four new Microsoft Innovation Centres in Morocco, Rwanda, Nigeria and Uganda which will each year provide an estimated 6,000 businessmen and women with the technology and expert support they need to start up businesses or further their careers. These facilities will help people with great ideas to figure out how to turn them into products or new businesses.
