October 20, 2017

UK-based social impact and sub-Saharan-focused investor AgDevCo announced it has invested $3 million in Rwandan poultry company Uzima Chicken Ltd.

Uzima is an early stage poultry operation that was developed by U.S.-based investor Flow Equity, which also launched a sister company EthioChicken in Ethiopia. Currently operating out of facilities leased from the Rwandan government in the Rubirizi and Kigali regions, Uzima provides day-old Sasso chicks (a robust breed that gains weight quickly and lays between three and four times the eggs of other breeds) through a network of distributors who then raise the chicks for four weeks before selling them to smallholder farmers.

The capital secured through this investment will be used by Uzima to fund expansion of the company’s output to between 8 and 10 million chicks per year. In the long term, the company’s goals include the production of one chicken per Rwandan family by 2020, and one chicken for every person in the country of 75 million by 2025.

“We believe Uzima Chicken can transform the poultry market in Rwanda by delivering improved birds to hundreds of thousands of households,” said Chris Isaac, regional director for AgDevCo. “We have seen the model’s success in Ethiopia and we are confident that, with continuing support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Uzima is well-placed to replicate that success in Rwanda.”  

Investment in Motion

This deal by AgDevCo comes less than two months after the firm’s previous two deals which occurred within days of each other.  On August 30, GAI News reported that the firm made a $5.05 million investment in Katito Farming Enterprises Ltd. – a key part of the firm’s Northern Zambia Agricultural Hub (NZAH). Through its NZAH project, AgDevCo aims to establish an irrigated farm, bulk storage, and agricultural processing operation that will catalyze commercial agriculture in the remote northern regions of Zambia.

Through the farming project, AgDevCo plans to produce seed maize, soybeans, wheat, groundnuts, commercial maize, and seed potatoes – all of which will contribute to strengthening food security for the region as well as Burundi, Rwanda, and Eastern DRC through greater exportation via barges on Lake Tanganyika and by rail via Tanzania.

Future plans at the site include an in-grower scheme, demonstration farming, and the provision of extension services.

This investment by AgDevCo represents the second investment by the fund in Northern Zambia following its $4.5 million investment made in June of last year in partnership with Saise Farming Enterprises – a seed potato project that is working toward modernizing the supply chain through the inclusion of irrigation systems and climate-controlled warehouses for crop storage until distribution to farmers the following season.

Between Katito Farming and Saise Farming, AgDevCo expects that these large-scale commercial farming enterprises will provide the “critical mass” needed to attract ancillary businesses along the supply chain including input suppliers, aggregators, value addition processors, off-takers, and logistics providers.

That same week, the fund also announced it was partnering with Mozambican investor group Nika to invest $1.5 million in Citrum SA for the rehabilitation of a banana plantation in the country.

Currently producing a variety of citrus fruits, the capital from AgDevCo will be used to fund irrigation and operation costs associated with transitioning and expanding the hectarage on the plantation to banana production. Once operational, the Citrum farm will be one of the only Mozambican-run banana farms in the country, and all fruit produced on the plantation will be marketed on both domestic markets and exported to South Africa.

Uzima’s mission and vision align well with the goals of AgDevCo and its existing portfolio companies – to operate a purpose-driven business that strives to increase the amount of safe chicken meat and eggs available to families in Rwanda.

“We are delighted that AgDevCo Rwanda is making this investment in Uzima,” said Joseph Shields, co-founder of Uzima Chicken. “It is always a challenge fundraising for early-stage growth capital. AgDevCo’s technical support will be of great benefit over and above the investment itself. We are now able to focus our efforts on delivering our business plan, secure in the knowledge that we are fully financed.”  

-Lynda Kiernan