Call for Applications: Vijana Na AgriBiz Competition (Kenya)

Deadline: 15 Septemeber 2023

Are you a young entrepreneur with an Agribusiness idea? Kenya Climate Innovation Center wants to hear from you!

The KCIC Agribiz program is an initiative supported by the European Union (EU) and Royal Danish Embassy and implemented by Kenya Climate Innovation Center aimed at promoting sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation in the agricultural sector. The program offers a range of services including business incubation, access to finance, and capacity building to women and youth entrepreneurs in the agriculture industry. By providing crucial support and resources, the KCIC Agribiz program empowers entrepreneurs to develop and scale their businesses, to create job opportunities, and contribute to the sustainable development of the agricultural sector in Kenya.

KCIC has opened the 2023 country-wide Call for Applications for the Vijana na AgriBiz Competition under the AgriBiz program targeting the youths and women with innovative commercially viable ideas in agribusiness. The competition aims to tackle barriers that prevents youths from harnessing the vast potential within the agricultural sector. It will also provide comprehensive support across the agricultural value chain, encompassing inputs, production, suppliers, and end consumers in traditional agriculture, fisheries, and livestock. The competition’s goals include fostering innovation in both agricultural practices and agribusiness, empowering local youth entrepreneurs, cultivating a culture of innovative entrepreneurship in agribusiness, increasing awareness of innovative practices on a global scale, establishing market connections, facilitating scaling opportunities, and identifying and assisting high-growth entrepreneurs poised to drive economic growth.

Vijana na AgriBiz Competition targets youth with innovative ideas in agribusiness and who are willing to show them to the world as well as to actualize them from ideation to actualization and finally commercialization. The competition will address key challenges that hinder youth from tapping into the immense potential in the agricultural sector. The competition will equally support the full spectrum of the value chain from agricultural inputs and producers, to suppliers for end consumers in conventional agriculture, fisheries and livestock.

The objectives of this competition include:

Fostering innovation in agricultural practices and in agribusinesses;
Building the capacity of local entrepreneurs especially the youth;
Promoting an innovative entrepreneurial culture in agribusiness;
Enhancing local and international awareness of the innovative practices;
Creating market linkages and offer opportunities for scaling up; and
Identifying and supporting high – growth entrepreneurs like to spur economic growth.

Funding Information

The top 20 winners will be accepted into the AgriBiz program, where they will receive conditional grants to enhance their business concepts. The ultimate winner will be granted a cash prize of one million (KSH.1,000,000), while the second and third place winners will receive seven hundred and fifty thousand only (KSH.750,000) and five hundred thousand shillings only (KSH.500,000) respectively. Successful participants will also have the opportunity to participate in boot camp sessions, investor readiness workshops, and a 1-year incubation program as part of the AgriBiz initiative.

Benefits to the Contestants

Applications will be encouraged for all idea stages irrespective of how young or ambitious it is. The shortlisted contestants in this competition will be enrolled for a boot-camp and coaching sessions which will proffer them with the following benefits:

KCIC will support the contestants fast track their idea into a profitable agribusiness and bypass all possible pitfalls along the way.
Contestants will learn how to raise financing for their ideas.
Contestants will get an opportunity to pitch during the county qualifiers, semi-finals and finals of the competition.

Eligibility Criteria

The competition is open to youth entrepreneurs (both male and female) aged 18-35, who are Kenyan citizens and operate within the 47 counties of Kenya. The applications should specifically focus on agribusiness ideas or prototypes that are intended to be established within Kenya. These ideas should be within the realms of agricultural, fisheries, and livestock value chains, encompassing diverse concepts ranging from inputs, processing, and production to transportation, marketing, and aggregation.

Selection Criteria

The following will be considered when reviewing the applications: