Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi)

The Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi) is a multi-donor entity devoted to private sector agribusiness development. aBi follows a long-term commitment by being both a catalyst in support of the Ugandan agricultural sector and a conduit through which development partners and investors can build the capacity of the agricultural sector. aBi was jointly founded by the Governments of Denmark and Uganda in 2010. Other Development Partners are; USAID, SIDA, UKAid, and KfW. aBi is supporting agribusiness development in the private sector to achieve the objective of the Government of Uganda’s Competitiveness and Investment Climate Strategy (CICS). aBi provides both financing and technical support in selected agricultural value chains and offers an integrated approach on value chain development. Our Strategic Objective Legal and Administrative aBi is a social enterprise that channels development cooperation funding to agribusinesses and agricultural service providers in Uganda with the aim of building a strong and competitive agriculture sector. aBi consists of two companies, ABI Development Ltd and aBi Finance Ltd. ABI Development Ltd channels development funding as matching grants and Business Development Services to agricultural producers and agribusinesses to enhance their management, production, productivity, value addition, income, profitability and employment. In the period 2014 – 2017 the aBi Trust (now ABI Development) financed around 110 matching grant projects to six value chains with a total value of around USh275 bn, of which USh130 bn were aBi grant contributions. aBi Finance Ltd provides Lines of Credit (LoCs) to Financial Institutions for on-lending to agribusinesses across the entire value chain. aBi Finance also runs an Agriculture Loan Guarantee Scheme (ALGs) for Financial Institutions to share losses incurred through defaulting loans. As at December 2017, aBi’s financial products generated over 231 thousand new loans to producers and businesses. Under the Financial Services Development (FSD) programme aBi Finance provides matching grants to FIs to build institutional capacity for enhancing the provision of financial services and increase outreach in rural areas. Strategic Objective A competitive, profitable and sustainable agriculture and agribusiness sector in support of equitable wealth creation in Uganda. Outcome: Long-term profitability and income of and employment creation by Ugandan farmers and agribusinesses increased - Result 1: Smallholder farmers’ sustainable production, productivity and market integration increased Result 2: Beneficiary agribusinesses overall business performance and sustainability improved Result 3: Smallholder farmers and agribusiness access to serviceable financial services increased Result 4: aBi’s efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability enhanced