Crowdfunding enhances access to finance for agribusinesses during COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought profound impact on food producing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and farmer groups in Sub-Sahara Africa. 2SCALE's crowdfunding campaign was initiated to provide support for these groups to meet daily expenditure required to mitigate against the effects of the pandemic on SMEs.
2SCALE is an incubator program that manages a network of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for inclusive business in agri-food sectors and industries, and offers a range of support services to SMEs, farmer groups and partners that enables them to produce, transform and supply quality food products.
To mitigate the impact of such disruptions and help business champions and SMEs stay afloat, 2SCALE started a crowdfunding initiative to help them raise funds from a broad range of supporters, locally and internationally.
35 SMEs from Mali, Kenya, and Nigeria participated in the first phase of the crowdfunding campaign in 2020, resulting in a successfully run campaign for 90% of them, raising over 60% percent of their targeted funds. A total of €53,831 was raised, with over €35,000 matched by 2SCALE.
The second phase kicked off on the 6th of May, with approximately 50 businesses from Nigeria, Kenya, and Mali participating. After the SMEs pitch and sell their inclusive agribusiness ideas to an online crowd, the funds that will be raised will provide these enterprises with working capital, capital expenditure for assets, and extension services to smallholder farmers for continued production of input needed by agro processors.
Learn more about the impact of the crowdfunding campain.
Join in
To help SMEs carry out their projects for sustainable and inclusive development, please visit the 2SCALE crowdfunding website, have a look at the pitches and contribute. The 2SCALE crowdfunding platform is an easy way for entrepreneurs to raise funds with the click of a button.
Learn how to join 2SCALE crowdfunding.
More on the potential of cash for food security
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