Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) has announced the contribution of $20-million to the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), set up to support innovative business ventures in Africa’s agriculture and finance sectors.
The AECF, which will provide match-funding for business innovations that improve the economic prospects of the most excluded in Africa, as employees, entrepreneurs or consumers, will become operational in early 2008.
It will offer grants of up to $1.5 million to businesses that provide innovative proposals for improving people’s chances to take part in economic activity, particularly in the areas of finance and agriculture. Seventy per cent of Africans work in agriculture.
Other donors who have already committed to support the fund include the African Development Bank, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also a part of the Donor Steering Group.
NEPAD
