Women are as good as men in agribusiness

The African Green Revolution Forum 2018 has just ended in Kigali Rwanda. And befitting of the progress the country has made in gender equality and women’s empowerment – a day before the event  the country held parliamentary elections and the proportion of womenelected to parliament rose from 64 per cent to 67 per cent - a group of organizations came together to put a spotlight on women in agribusiness.

At the meeting, I told the story of three women, Charity, Loise and Jane. In 2012, they founded Exotic EPZ Limited a company which processes macadamia nuts for export. When they decided to go into business together, nobody took them seriously. The banks said that as women with no property or land for collateral, they were too big a risk for a loan.