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Pan-African development financier GroFin has received a grant of US$10 million from the USAID East Africa Trade and Investment Hub to make investments in the agribusiness sector in East Africa over a two-year period.

GroFin specialises in financing and supporting small and growing businesses across Africa and the Middle East, and is active in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Egypt.

It has invested in 600 SMEs, supported over 8,000 entrepreneurs, and sustained over 95,125 jobs across a wide spectrum of businesses over the last 14 years, and will use the grant from the USAID East Africa Trade and Investment Hub to invest in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

“GroFin is proud to partner with USAID through the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub to extend the reach of its unique model of access to finance and business support to high impact agribusinesses across East Africa,” said GroFin investment executive Rishi Khubchandani.

“Our intent is to provide business support and assistance to catalyse investments into food security, staple foods and high value nutrition products and increase the competitiveness of agriculture value chains in the region.”

Juan Estrada-Valle, chief of party at the USAID East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, said the programme being launched with GroFin was the missing element in its portfolio.

“It will enable us to provide targeted assistance to SMEs operating in the agriculture sector,” he said.

Titled “Catalytic financial tool for underserved sectors”, the grant will involve GroFin screening 200 agribusinesses and offering tailor-made technical assistance to promising small and medium enterprises.

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