Engineers Without Borders assists agribusiness development

Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a Canadian organisation that supports innovation in agriculture in Ghana, is currently assisting a number of social enterprises to develop resilient small and growing agribusinesses.

These enterprises provide professional business development and capacity building services to the agribusinesses to improve their operations, and ultimately prepare them for investment. 

The EWB Portfolio Manager, Ms Megan Campbell, at a press briefing in Accra ahead of a meeting on investment in Ghanaian agribusinesses, said EWB invested in the agribusiness sector because it recognised the challenges that confronted it. 

“These challenges prevent enough money from flowing to them at the early stage. Through the meeting, we want to really understand the challenges at the detailed and practical levels and more importantly, we can really start to get solutions,” she said. 

She added that participants at the meeting would have the opportunity to examine three models from the social enterprises, namely, Mobile Business Clinic (MBC), Kulemela Investments and Growth Mosaic, as a step to improve the support available to small and growing agribusinesses. 

The Programme Manager of MBC, Mr Marindame Kombate, said the MBC offered a learning platform to support the growth of local agribusinesses, and has since its inception, organised clinics in Accra, Tema, Tamale and Kumasi for about 36 agribusinesses. 

He said MBC had put most of those businesses on a sound footing and they had given them access to networks that they would otherwise not have access to.