The Dutch government has promised to support small and medium enterprises engaged in agriculture in Uganda to enable them to have an annual turnover of a million dollars or more. The arrangement is the brainchild of the Africa Agribusiness Academy (AAA), that has 20 members in Uganda.
At a meeting in the capital Kampala, Mr Henny Gerner, the First Secretary at the Dutch Embassy said they would continue supporting efforts to link Dutch companies with Ugandan enterprises engaged in agriculture to realize the potential of agriculture in development.
The Africa Agribusiness Academy was founded in 2010 by 15 small- and medium- scale entrepreneurs from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They wanted to expand and strengthen their role in the food- and agribusiness through cooperation.
Innovation, the sharing of knowledge and experience and the attraction of investors are some of the means to improve business. AAA wants to contribute to economic growth, improve rural income and increase food security in Africa.
Mr Farid Karama one of the directors of AAA said they would sit down with their members to see how they can turn their small businesses to bigger companies that can earn at least 1 million dollars a year. He said they expect to link members and evaluate the relationship between entrepreneurs in Uganda, the Netherlands and other African countries.
AAA-membership in Uganda is likely to rise to about 60 by the end of the year, according to Karama. If all goes according to plan, all the 60 businesses will have a turnover of 1 million dollars which would contribute 60 million dollars to Uganda’s agriculture alone.”
AAA-director Dr. Stephen Birungi advised members to utilise their land well for production. ,,They should not look at land as a property to be inherited ,but as resource to be utilised to create wealth.”