BY JAMES ANYANZWA
Citibank group has approved a $2 million (Sh174 million) financing towards the smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The funds are to be channeled through a non-profit social enterprise dubbed ‘Kickstart International.’
They money will be used to boostproduction of quality, low-cost irrigation pumps for use by the smallholder farmers.
“Irrigation has tremendous potential to increase productivity, raise income levels for smallholder farmers in Africa and provide a sustainable solution to the rural poor’s most important need — a way to consistently earn money,” said Martin Fisher, Co-Founder and chief executive of KickStart International.
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In a statement yesterday, Fisher said the partnership between Citi group and Skoll Foundation would enable KickStart to alleviate poverty.
Unemployed workforce
According to The World Bank, 65 per cent of Africa’s labour force is employed by the agriculture industry, yet farming accounts for only 32 per cent of gross domestic product on the continent.
Fisher said KickStart’s mission is to lift millions of people in Africa out of poverty through quick, cost-effective and sustainable means. “KickStart succeeds by designing, promoting and mass-marketing of simple money-making tools that poor smallholder farmers buy and use to build profitable enterprises,” he said.
He said the loan procured from CitiBank would be used as working capital to expand production and distribution of its human-powered water pumps.
He noted that the pumps will enable poor farmers to irrigate their lands throughout the year and help improve crop yields. It will also boost income for farming households.
