Liliane Uwintwari, the CEO of Mahwi Tech, a firm helping smallholder farmers sell their produce at favourable prices through technology, is among the winners of the 2022 Women Agripreneur of the Year Award. Each of the four winners in the four categories received a grant of $20,000. Winners of the 2022 Women Agripreneur of the Year Awards (WAYA 2022) were announced on Wednesday, September 7 by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) summit that’s underway in Kigali. Winners are Fatou Manneh – Founder, Jelmah Herbella (The Gambia) as Young Female Agripreneur (Rising Star); and Liliane Uwintwari– CEO, Mahwi Tech (Rwanda) as Female Ag Tech Innovator. Others are Célia Chabi – CEO, Kiel Bien-Être (Benin) as Outstanding Value Adding Enterprise; and Overall Grand Award – Oluyemisi Iranloye – Managing Director, Psaltry International (Nigeria). Uwintwari’s Mahwi Tech is an Agritech firm based in Rwanda with a mission to digitalise agriculture in Africa, currently serving 20,000 small holder farmers- providing access to high end markets and financing via MLIMA digital market place and consequently increasing farmers’ incomes and sales. MLIMA platform works to address demand and supply chain gaps of agriculture commodities using digital technologies and hence, contribute to food systems security. Over 60 farming cooperatives benefit from MLIMA cooperative management system to digitise their operations and keep digital records of their finances, production, sales, stock and a database of all their member profiles and farm records, which Uwintwari said can make them eligible for services, including loans from financial institutions. “And most importantly, it helps them [farmers] to access high-end markets, which they would not otherwise reach if they did not have technology. So, it cuts out the middlemen who often take advantage of them, giving them low prices for the commodity that they laboured so hard for,” Uwintwari said. Currently, she said that the agritech was limited to agricultural information such as demand and supply. However, she said that this challenge is expected to be addressed thanks to this funding, indicating that part of it will be invested into logistics and enabling a digital payment system. “The award that we have gotten is going to be heavily invested in the digital infrastructure system, to be able to support our e-market place, because we are trying to find logistics and trying to see how these farmers can be paid online through our digital platform,” she said. Agnes Kalibata, president of AGRA said each of the four winners is a remarkable role model to the thousands of women across Africa working to make their mark on African agriculture, and embodies the ambitions of VALUE4Her – AGRA’s continental initiative aimed at strengthening women’s agribusiness enterprises and enhancing voice and advocacy across Africa. “The unique stories of our four winners will help us to inspire and enhance advocacy for female agripreneurs across Africa, to build an environment that supports women to catalyse the needed transformation of Africa’s food systems,” she observed. Launched in 2018, the awards aim to promote female success stories and role models, trigger innovation and spur ambition among women agripreneurs.
