OUR SERVICES

We aim to facilitate growth, scaling and investor readiness

Through targeted scale-up programs such as the Strathmore Agribusiness Transformation Program (ATP), the Centre is committed to providing professional business advisory services for small and large businesses, farmer cooperatives, and agri-preneurs to facilitate growth, scaling, and investor readiness. One key strategy is to ensure value chain governance that encourages enterprises to integrate with small-scale producers for assured demand and market-led inclusive growth and transformation of the value chains.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are important generators of employment and GDP in emerging economies and are one of the best instruments to drive inclusive agricultural transformation. However, the chronic lack of access to credit limits their growth and impact. Local financial institutions serve larger enterprises, and microfinance models focus on “micro” and small SMEs, but mainstream models to address the needs of the “missing middle” – which may range from $20K up to $1-2m in borrowing needs – are nascent or non-existent.

There is limited evidence available on the economics of financing SMEs – especially agricultural SMEs – making it difficult to identify where market interventions are required and how they should be calibrated to incentivize increased lending without distorting markets. Relevant business advisory services can provide these SMEs with the necessary knowledge and skills to make informed decisions, manage resources effectively, and develop sustainable business strategies, especially in the face of vulnerability to climate change and market fluctuations.

Our Projects

Projects at the centre are achieving significant impacts across the agriculture value chain and laying the groundwork for transformational efforts in the future. Working with partners and collaborators, we have supported the livestock team on scaling climate-smart ventures and with their pastoralist strategies in Africa. Key projects under the business advisory pillar include:

  • African Pastoral Markets Transformation (APMT) Initiative – (Nov 2023-Oct 2025): This project seeks to Identify, engage, and activate private sector stakeholders to lead demand-led pilots that test different models for improving pastoral livelihoods. Learnings from this project are driving further interventions to transform the pastoral communities and the livestock sector. The projects under this initiative were designed by BMGF in partnership with Strathmore University Business School (SBS) – Strathmore University Agri-Food Innovation Center (SAFIC), Boston Consulting Group (BCG). 2 PMDs in Ethiopia and Kenya are funded and being implemented; a 3rd in Nigeria is being designed. Lessons from these 3 PMDs suggest that the model is easily replicable and to scale the number of off-takers adopting the approach would require crowding-in of additional funding.

  • Green Ventures Africa (Nov 2022-March 2024): Accelerated the sustainability-focused initiatives of climate-smart African businesses, allowing these businesses to maximize the size and impact of their efforts against climate change. The Objective of the global Green Ventures initiative strived to build and accelerate green businesses with collective potential impact of 1 Gt CO2e at scale. GVA aims to maximize size & impact of highest potential climate-smart African companies. The project tailored the global Green Ventures goal to the African context where ventures & great solutions are scaling too slowly and, climate change effects are most adversely and extremely felt (vs other regions). The approach consisted of working with climate-smart African companies to scale and accelerate their efforts.

  • Markets Transformation for Pastoralists (MTP) – Pathfinder and Platform (Sep 2022- Nov 2023): End to end market & demand-driven pilots, integrating pastoralists and livestock offtake markets, and delivering feed/fodder, health, traceability, financing interventions.