aBi Trust, an agriculture investment fund in Uganda has revealed plans to step away from just offering grants to more sustainable services such as loans. These remarks were made by Josephine Mukumbya on the second day of the Uganda Agriculture Financing Conference. Among its future plans, the aBi Trust will progress to offering improved integration of services as it seeks to attain sustainability. There will also be a more structured approach to agribusiness knowledge with aBi trust planning a one-stop centre for agribusiness information. Above all, the Trust will broaden its prospective and include more middle income upcoming agripreneurs. Mukumbya also explained that as far as sustainability is concerned, the fund will promote socially responsible investing. "We are also keen on social responsibility investment in terms of environmental, audit, and gender among others,"she explained. aBi Trust has 63 partners in value chain development and 18 partners especially finan...

Deloitte and PearlCapital have revealed that Uganda will be the lucky recipient of a $30 million agribusiness investment fund in 2016. The fund code-named; "Small and Medium Agribusiness Development Fund" is targeting 20-30 SMEs in Uganda. Speaking about the fund, Tom an official from PearlCapital revealed that additional employment and improved access to markets for 26,000 will be the target impact metrics.  PearlCapital has invested in substantial seed companies among which is  KK fresh produce and Bee Natural Uganda. Their model is to invest risk-capital in the sector while working actively with the investees.  "Although we are an impact investing business, we measure our success depending on a number of metrics such as employment but we also consider the financial criteria. We structure our investment to give our invests the best chance of success but also ensure best ROI for our investors," PearlCapital clarified.  Quick Summary of the Fund...

Dr. Louis Kasekende, the Deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda made interesting remarks at the launch of the 2015 Agricultural Finance Yearbook. Here are some of the highlights of his speech as Guest of Honour.  Budgetary resources are scarce, investment is prioritised on goods/services that benefit the public for example extension services.  Public expenditure on goods and services particularly on  research and extension services must be increased. Farmers need a holistic support package of improved seeds, provision of fertilisers etc and not limited to just finance  If we are to solve the problem of unemployment in Uganda, we must focus on Agriculture. 

Judith Bakirya, a farmer and a discussant at the launch of the 2015 Agricultural Finance Yearbook has called upon for focus on smallholder farmers. In her view, success in the agricultural sector will only be realised when banks and the stakeholders at are understand the mindset of the smallholder farmer.  “The reason mobile money, phone, and bodabodas are succeeding in Uganda is because they're individual and small,” Bakirya noted. “We need to change the mindset. A smallholder farmer is individual and small. How do we build on a farmer who works 80 percent?” She challenged the audience.  Bakirya further opined that for a smallholder farmer, a hoe does 80 percent of the work and the role of stakeholders was how to help them improve. “Without understanding smallholder farmers, products will come and go (without making impact),” she warned. 

The former Finance Minister of Uganda, Gerald Ssendaula has asked government and donors to increase funding allocations to agricultural research in the country. Ssendaula was speaking as one of the panelists at the launch of the 2015 Agricultural Finance Yearbook at Speke Resort Munyonyo. In his deliberations, Ssendaula said Agriculture was a sector the country couldn’t afford to give a row deal. “Agriculture pays when given the attention it deserves,” he explained. “If Uganda was importing food, the economy would be in shambles.”  Ssendaula said there was need for farmers groups in order to have collective bargaining while negotiating credit. Strongest of all, Ssendaula affirmed the need for research in the sector. “Research is key if Uganda's agriculture is to move to another level. Our coffee was attacked by wilt, it took more than 20 years to come up with replacement varieties due to lack of research,” said Ssendaula. Ssendaula had no kind words for those who formed...

Sugarcane production trends show that Uganda’s output has been increasing in recent years, but challenges such as quality still exist. Dr. Ibrahim Okumu while speaking about contract farming in the Ugandan Sugar Industry highlighted some of these challenges. “The challenge for sugar factories is quality supply by out growers. Warnings, fines are issued for non-compliance,” said Okumu a lecturer at School of Economics at Makerere University. Sugarcane production in Uganda also continues to rotate around the three big players of Kinyara, Kakira and Lugazi that account for 85 percent of production. In areas like Busoga where sugarcane has been grown for longer periods, not much of a difference has been witnessed in the lives of the growers. “The Basoga have over the years grown sugarcane. But they  are still trapped in poverty.  Where is the problem?”asked Okumu. “The Basogas grow sugarcane but it has not taken them out of poverty due to underlying sector pitfalls.”  ...

When faced with the question of whether agricultural businesses in Uganda are bankable, a number of mixed answers and arguments have been highlighted. According to Asaph Besigye, one of the authors of the Agricultural Finance Yearbook 2015, risk is the major reason banks give from opting out of funding agricultural businesses. Many of these businesses are termed as bankability deficient.  Bankability is a connotation that has been used to describe capacity to attract and support commercial financing. As such, because agricultural businesses are considered less profitable, commercial lenders in Uganda assume them to be non-bankable. “The concerns of the finance institutions to Agricultural finance is risk (profitability),” Besigye pointed out. “Are financial institutions bankable policies relevant, flexible and in tandem with agricultural sector?” he rhetorically asked. “It’s not that there is no demand for agricultural finance but there is a divide in understanding bank-abilit...

The Executive Director of Economic Policy Research Centre, Dr. Sarah Ssewanyana has decried the lack of funding in the Agricultural Sector, urging the government to walk the talk. “The ministry of Agriculture Industry & Fisheries is underfunded,receives only 3 percent of the national budget,” she noted.  She also pointed out that although the sector has been a major beneficiary of tax exemptions in the past 15 years, the sector has under performed in the past five years. She pointed out that the sector had under performed in both industry and services.  “Agriculture Finance has been termed as policy orphan given  the  rarity of policy  frameworks dedicated to agriculture finance,” Dr. Ssewanyana further explained. On the Agricultural finance year book, she said that it highlighted challenges in the commodity value chain. She warned that limited agriculture financing has wider economic implications on Uganda. In her concluding remarks, she obser...