Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Aceli Africa are inviting concept notes from organizations offering sustainable, scalable, and innovative solutions that address reliability and transparency of the financial statements provided by SMEs. AGRA is a farmer-centred, African-led, and partnerships-driven institution that transforms Africa’s smallholder farming from a solitary struggle to survive to a business that thrives. Aceli Africa is an organization whose aim is to bridge the finance gap and unlock the growth and impact potential of agricultural SMEs in Africa.

Many SMEs involved in agriculture keep informal or inconsistent accounts of their daily business activities and often find official audits too costly. As a result, they are unable to access financing so critical to growing their businesses. Through the Challenge, AGRA and Aceli Africa aim to find low-cost solutions that will help build SMEs’ capacity to keep consistent and reliable accounting records. This will facilitate SME efficient business operations and growth. The support targets SMEs that sell inputs to or buy produce from smallholder farmers and have financing needs of between 25,000 and 500,000 USD.

Who is eligible to apply?

Organizations that meet the following criteria qualify to submit their concepts;

  • A registered business entity involved in financial record-keeping solutions for small enterprises in East Africa.
  • Have operations in one or more of the following countries: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and/or Uganda.
  • Have a proof-of-concept and looking for scaling of the business model.
  • Must be in a sound financial condition.
  • Have sufficient existing capability/capacity to deploy the proposed solution

How to apply

  • Send applications to rfcn@agra.orgwith a copy to aorora@agra.org.
  • Applications should be between 2-3 pages. They should include information about the organization, product offering, reach/impact to date, and the pathway to scale.
  • Implementing successful solutions will take place from July 01, 2021, to June 30, 2022.

 Application Deadline: May 07 2021, 17.00 EAT

For details about the call, visit https://agra.org/call-for-concept-notes-agra-aceli-africa-innovation-challenge/.