During her visit to Kenya, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, addressed the inaugural Investment Summit held by the EU-supported Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC). The EU has partnered with KCIC through the Agribiz programme in advancing the centre’s objective of unlocking funding for green businesses run by women and young people.
Commissioner Urpilainen said: “The KCIC Investment Summit is an important step towards ensuring Kenya’s green and sustainable growth by finding climate solutions and increasing youth employment. I am delighted to see the EU’s Global Gateway investment strategy supporting innovative green enterprises and agricultural businesses, helping them to find funding to ensure long term opportunities and growth for Kenyan people and your beautiful country.”
The Conference in Kenya’s capital Nairobi brings micro, small and medium sized enterprises together with potential investors and stakeholders to explore green investment opportunities and showcase innovative solutions to climate business challenges.
The Commissioner, alongside Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Cooperatives & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Simon Kiprono Chelugui, spoke to various entrepreneurs, who had received EU funding, and saw how their projects contributed towards combatting climate change.
The Summit is part of the €19 million KCIC AgriBiz Programme, funded by the European Union in collaboration with Denmark which targets individuals, community-based organisations and small and medium-sized enterprises. It aims to create 20,000 jobs in the agriculture sector, increase smallholder production, improve food security and boost household incomes.
The programme offers incubation support through training, funding and access to markets for agribusiness enterprises run by youth and women. Since the programme began three years ago more than 2000 companies have been supported with services and above 400 of those have received grants. This support to companies has created and sustained 8000 jobs so far. The programme operates in eight counties in Kenya, where Business Incubation Hubs have been established.
The AgriBIZ programme and the Kenya Climate Innovation Center are part of the Team Europe Initiative Investing in Young Businesses (IYBA) in Africa,which was launched in February 2023 in Nairobi during the EU-Kenya Business Forum. The Team Europe Initiative brings together the institutional, financial, and technical capacities of 11 European Member States with more than €390 million focused on supporting Kenya’s small and medium sized enterprises.
