USAID-supported Feed the Future MFA organizes access to financing training for women in poultry value chain
The USAID-supported Feed the Future Ghana Mobilizing Finance in Agriculture (MFA) Activity has organized a business management training for over 120 members of Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC) in Kumasi, Ashanti Region.
The workshop was designed to address constrains hindering women-led businesses in the poultry value chain access to finance and help them to secure financing needed to sustain their agribusinesses and contribute to food security through the production and marketing of maize, soybeans, animal feed, poultry meat and eggs.
The key training topic was on records keeping for financial decision-making, and for business health determination including profit and loss; long-term business forecasting; and data evidence for accessing financing. In attendance were MFA-supported transaction advisors and partner financial institutions. The financial institutions used the platform to promote their financial products to the female-led poultry value chain actors.
“The training is one of several interventions designed by MFA in collaboration with WIPVaC to help members’ businesses with transaction advisory services to improve the management of their operations and make them finance-ready to attract investment to expand,” Dr. Victor Antwi, Chief of Party, Feed the Future Ghana Mobilizing Finance in Agriculture Activity said in a press release.
“The training will enhance their financial literacy and help them to keep good financial records and make them attractive to financial institutions and investors. MFA will, through its network of transaction advisors, support WIPVaC member businesses to become ready to secure financing. Access to finance by the agribusinesses will provide a ready market to over 8,400 smallholder farmers that supply them with maize and soybeans – major raw materials for poultry feed production.”
As of October 2022, MFA has facilitated $178.8 million to approximately 18,634 agribusinesses including 54% female-led enterprises in the MFA target value chains of maize, soy, groundnut, cowpea, cashew, mango, and shea. The US Government, also through the MFA, released $2.77 million under the COVID-19 Relief and Resilience Challenge Fund to support farmers and agribusinesses to mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic and become more resilient against possible future shocks
