The Imali Agribusiness Challenge, which aims to empower youth agripreneurs and encourage job creation in the agriculture sector, has advanced to its next phase. ALSO READ: Rwanda looks to double agric growth rate Imali Agribusiness Challenge is an initiative of the Imbuto Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, UNDP, and FAO. It targets projects tackling various agriculture areas, including high-value crops for agribusiness, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, post-harvest, value addition, climate-resilient smart agriculture, urban agriculture, and agriculture digital platforms. ALSO READ: Only 18% of youth in agriculture use agri-tech innovation; survey Among them will be selected 30 best projects that will participate in a seven-day boot camp business training from May 5 to May 8, to help them develop their ideas into innovative and lucrative projects and also to receive helpful pitching skills. After the boot camp, there will be final pitching presentations, with the top 15 agricultural project winners receiving seed funding of Rwf 150,000,000 each. ALSO READ: Rwanda Youths in agriculture Following the awarding ceremony, the winning individuals/teams will begin a mentorship session that will last six months. The mentorship sessions cover financial fitness and credit management, agriculture advanced technology with climate change mitigation, business management with international markets export, basic accounting and finance skills, and taxation. ALSO READ: What declining number of Rwandans in agriculture means The top 10 agricultural entrepreneurs will receive training from DOT Rwanda, a youth-led movement of daring social innovators that supports young people with the tools and skills to become entrepreneurs. The training includes writing a business plan and pitching a business idea to market one's innovation. According to Petra Niyonsenga, Extension Material Production Specialist at MINAGRI, the Imali Agribusiness Challenge provides an opportunity for young agripreneurs to showcase their innovative ideas and receive support to develop them into functional businesses. She emphasized the need for more young people in agribusiness, citing the significance of the sector in the country's economy as a potential for more job creation and scalability by employing new technologies. ALSO READ: Meet Rwanda’s promising agriculture sector startups Marie Janviere Mukamuhirwa, the founder and Managing Director of Veggies For Health LTD, expressed her appreciation for the initiative to support more young people in their endeavors. Her company employs teenage mothers in the Musanze district to support them, and she believes that receiving funding would enable her to scale her impact and increase production. Edmond Senga, who also presented his idea for 'Organic Pesticide Manufacturing' at the competition, pointed out that young people have plenty of innovative ideas, but funding remains a major challenge. Sometimes, it is not even a matter of the idea being completely new. We could learn from successful ideas from other places that can be adapted to solve our local problems, as long as we can count on such support, he added.
