Mrs. Fiona Lukwago, manager advisory services at Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, AECF, and moderator of the webinar series on adapting to COVID-19 disruptions. This webinar will demystify the value of digital solutions in addressing disruptions caused by COVID-19. The need for digital solutions has been accelerated by the outbreak of COVID-19, with several actors in the agricultural value chains embracing them to foster social distancing and beat restrictions embraced by governments to curb the spread of the disease. Businesses are however asking themselves the fundamental questions:
- How do I know if digital solutions will indeed bring more value to my business? Do they work for all SMEs?
- Which digital solutions are working well and what does it take to adopt digitalization?
- How do digital solutions contribute to business continuity during this COVID-19?
Mrs. Naoko Koyama-Blanc, Partner and Regional Director for Africa at Dalberg Advisors is the main speaker. Dalberg Advisors is a consultancy firm specialized in advising on digitalization solutions for the agricultural sector in developing countries and led the CTA study: The Digitalization of African Agriculture Report, 2018 – 2019.
About eProd
eProd Solutions offers an ERP for managing agricultural value chains. Two eProd users will share their experiences with digital solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic impacting their business operations.
- Michael Maina, Production Manager at Equator Kenya Michael will share his experience in dealing with the COVID-19 disruptions to continue activities with the Chilli farmers, including getting seeds to them in time for planting, all due to the digital solutions he adopted. He believes this remote delivery will continue post COVID-19.
- Fahad Awadh – CEO, YYTZ Agro-processing – Tanzania. The company has had to adapt, by prioritizing the integration of e-commerce and an end-to-end traceability system that will allow them to sell to consumers directly while building on the recently implemented digital farmer management system. This is being fast-tracked to ensure that they are able to reach their customers directly during a prolonged lockdown scenario
About AECF
The AECF is a development institution that supports businesses to innovate, create jobs, and leverage investments and markets in an effort to create resilience and sustainable incomes in rural and marginalized communities in Africa. Launched in 2008, the AECF has mobilized over US $356 million to date, leveraging more than US $658 million in matching capital and improving the lives of more than 16 million people in 2017 alone through jobs and increased household incomes. AECF has so far supported 268 companies in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa across 40 value chains in our focal sectors of agribusiness and renewable energy. info@aecfafrica.org
Registration webinar: Click here to register now!
Date: 2nd July 2020
Time: 15Hrs – 1630Hrs EAT