By Anne Roulin | President - Agripreneurship Alliance
Despite all the turmoil created by COVID-19, 133 students completed the Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness training and already submitted 47 business plans. We are still expecting a few more to come. The Plans are all reviewed by Experts and individual feedback given to each Team. Some of the students managed to start their businesses even with the lock-down. Others who already had small businesses applied all the learnings from the Training and adapted their products according to customer needs. For example, Hillary's business was already selling after-shave products based on lemon and aloe vera but he rapidly turned around and started producing hand sanitisers, disinfectants etc. The prize money awarded by the Agripreneurship Alliance allowed Hillary to buy stocks of raw materials and packaging to keep up with the demand for his new products.
The Training of Trainers week-long session which was planned for the end of April in Kampala, Uganda, obviously could not take place. Instead we organised a series of virtual sessions for our current Trainers to share their experience from teaching the last cohorts of students; to propose improvements and to allow us to spend time on areas of the training where the students struggle (like the financial aspects). There was also the opportunity to share experience about coping with the COVID crisis. The sessions were very lively and much appreciated. We have planned a session in mid-November for new Trainers from Universities in Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We hope to travel to do this in person, otherwise it will be organised virtually - Zoom sessions have rapidly become a daily occupation!
We have partnered with Generation Africa (in the context of the GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition) to offer the Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Training as a completely on-line course. It starts on July 8th and will run for 2 months. As we know that doing on-line courses alone is very challenging, we are holding a weekly webinar on each module with guest speakers, testimonies from young agripreneurs and opportunities for exchange and Q&A. At the end of the Course, each business plan will be reviewed, and individual feedback will be given. So far close to 200 participants have registered.
Thank you so much for your support to the Agripreneurship Alliance. Every penny is used wisely and, as you can see from the news above, we are forging on in spite of the pandemic!
Keep safe and healthy!
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