Project Incubator Award 2011 puts Africa SMEs in spotlight

The Project Incubator Award aims to encourage Africa's entrepreneurs to showcase innovative and sustainable projects. The award has allowed winners and nominees to receive much needed media attention and international recognition in addition to funding and increased investment.

"We received congratulatory messages from across Africa and Europe. I will always be thankful for that recognition. Never had I expected that I would be holding the first prize. Believe me," explains Maria Odido, winner of the EMRC-Rabobank Project Incubator Award 2010.

Since winning the award, Odido has invested in her Bee Natural Uganda business, with positive results.

"We re-equipped our Queen Rearing yard. This way, we are able to increase our income through selling colonies to our beekeepers. We have also introduced new bee products such as packaged comb honey - a novelty in East Africa. In addition, we have changed our packaging from plastic pots to glass jars," she explains.

Past winners include Derek Kwesiga, founder of Derekorp, whose vision is to create a world class food processing business specialising in fruit and vegetable products from produce grown in Uganda and Augustin Yemene, whose Mupeci project focuses on financing soy-producing farmers in Cameroon.

Focusing on increasing the growth

The AfDB-EMRC SME Forum focuses on increasing the growth and flow of the financial and non-financial support to SMEs, as this is a significant sector for the continent's development. The forum aims to establish opportunities for the African Development Bank and its partners to support this sector with key industry players discussing policies and strategies to move the sector forward.

Known as the Missing Middle, the growth of the SME sector in developing countries is hampered by a lack of access to finance, lagging far behind high-income countries whose SMEs bring in over 50% of the national GDP. An estimated 95% of businesses in Africa are MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and there is enormous scope for development in Africa with the continent's abundant resources.

To register for the AfDB-EMRC SME Forum, go to www.emrc.be.

For information on sponsorship and speaking opportunities, contact Samuel Pulido, project manager on tel: +32.2626.1518 or email eb.crme@ps.