Youth in Agriculture -Mozambique: Agro-Jovem financing totals 33 million meticais over 29 projects

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Youth in Agriculture -Mozambique: Agro-Jovem financing totals 33 million meticais over 29 projects

1:32 CAT | 29 Jan 2018

The Agro-Jovem project, an initiative of Gapi-Sociedade de Investimentos, officially launched by the Mozambican president in 2015 with the support of DANIDA, is currently implementing a total of 29 business projects throughout the country, representing overall financing of around 33 million meticais.

Following the success of a number of initiatives to support young entrepreneurs, in particular Agro-Youth, Gapi is planning to set up a youth-specific investment fund to further contribute to the emergence of a new group of entrepreneurs and contribute to an inclusive society.

“We have several programmes dedicated to promoting women and young entrepreneurs. In the case of young people, Agro-Jovem involves partnerships with 16 universities and technical and vocational schools, as well as organisations such as Global Shapers Mozambique and AIESEC,” Gapi managing director, António Souto said on Friday in Maputo at the launch of the Tshuvuka brand by Formoso Carneiro, an entrepreneur who first had technical and financial assistance from Gapi 20 years ago.

Formoso Carneiro, who first became a Gapi customer while still operating from a tent in the Xai-Xai market, has maintained its relationship with the financial development institution ever since, succeeding establishing a printing company in Maputo which currently employs 40 workers directly. “The success of Formoso, and others, is an incentive to devote more attention and resources to the potential of certain young people. Our job is to identify, support and accompany them,” Souto said.

Souto said that the Agro-Jovem project, involved about 950 young people in developing ideas for business possibilities in the country in 2017, is currently funding 29 business initiatives in almost all provinces in Mozambique. Credit and technical assistance already available amounts to about 33 million meticais. “Small companies are emerging throughout the country with dedicated young people who are starting to implement their businesses ideas, contributing to a more inclusive society,” Souto remarked.

“We are working to ensure that, through a financial instrument managed on the basis of our experience, more young people benefit and more jobs are created, similar to what has happened with Formoso Carneiro, the owner of the Tshuvuka brand,” he said.

Carneiro said that, during his 20 years of partnership with Gapi, his life changed for the better, just as did the lives of many collaborators who accompanied him in his entrepreneurial career.

“Gapi support made it possible for me to leave the informal sector and open my first store. To this day, I wonder why they believed in me, giving me credit without strong guarantees. I feel fulfilled now, because I have an established business that employs a good number of workers,” Carneiro said.

Source: A Verdade