When Gosberth, a 44-year-old father of four children from Tanzania, looks back at his journey as a Cassava Seed Entrepreneur (CSE), it reminds him of what it took to get there: hard work, commitment, and a lot of networking.
Selemani lives in Lindi region, Tanzania. For most of his life, he has been a farmer and grows cassava, sesame, and cashew nuts. At first, he only grew cassava for his food. His perspective later changed when he learned of the many opportunities to grow cassava as a cash crop.
Thirty-six-year-old Eugenia embraces the ups and downs of being a single mother. She works hard and plants sunflowers and maize to provide for her family. Eugenia also grows cassava crops, but at first, only for food.
Esthère-Love Jean is an ambitious woman entrepreneur who runs a small soft drink business. Equipped with drive and determination, she struggles to get by, making only enough money to feed her son.
Angelita Mbatia is a former Director of Financial Markets from the Central Bank of Tanzania. In 2004, she moved from Dar es Salaam to Bwama village, Kisarawe district. Her motivation to move there was clear: she was inspired by Julius Nyerere’s (Tanzania’s first president) philosophy of self-reliance and wanted to apply this philosophy to helping support the Bwama village community.
10 years ago after completing my master’s in business administration degree, I was thinking, ‘from where should I start my career journey?’
Through MEDA’s M-SAWA project, funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), TCP is providing 15-20 alternative fuel producer (50% women led) enterprises with training, mentorship, financial support, technical support, online resources, and access to a network of entrepreneurs to generate a positive economic and environmental impact by displacing use of traditional wood charcoal.
Through its partnership with M-SAWA Transu aims to support 4,000 cereal farmers in Migori, Homabay and Siaya counties to increase productivity and reduce post-harvest losses while Transu offers a ready offtake market for sorghum and soybean farmers.
Lucas Odhiambo Oduor has been a rice farmer since childhood, supporting his grandfather and father’s farming business. Now in his early thirties, Lucas is a married father of 3 children. As the first born in his family he is also responsible for supporting his parents and siblings.
Young entrepreneurs are also in need of support to pivot and adapt their business strategies in the wake of the changing business environment from COVID-19. This is where MEDA and its partner Ongoza come in.
MEDA’s Women and Youth (WAY) project in Bauchi, Northern Nigeria is witnessing the growing impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss firsthand. Annual precipitation in the past 3 years has consistently been delayed by more than a month and when the rains do come, the intensity of rainfall over short periods of time causes flooding and soil erosion, often taking lives and destroying properties in the process.
Kaltume Hassan is a mother of seven and a small entrepreneur in the rice processing industry of Bauchi, Nigeria. Kaltume
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