Digitalizing agro-processing small and medium sized businesses in Ethiopia
29 December 2023
The ILO ProAgro Ethiopia ‘Promotion of Decent Work in Agribusiness Sector’ project in collaboration with a local Business Development Services (BDS) provider, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Ethiopia organized a knowledge-sharing event on digital youth and women-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) business-to-business network development in the agribusiness sector from 28-29 December 2024 at Capital Hotel, Addis Ababa.
The objective of this two-day event was to foster the creation of business networks, cooperatives and relevant linkages that boost business-to-business engagements for inclusive growth and creation of more and better jobs. The majority of women and youth led agribusiness under the ProAgro assistance face the challenge of sustaining their investments because of lack of access to information on how to improve their ventures, how to reach and build their clientele, and even to attract partnerships. It is therefore against this backdrop of market access challenges for agribusinesses that the event was organized to explore better market access through digital solutions, and network building. The two-day Business-to-Business (B2B) event brought together a total 40 youth and women-led agribusinesses with e-commerce service providers to showcase digital market platforms, the different agribusiness products, and other opportunities for business growth.
In his opening remarks Anthony Agyenta, Project Manager, ILO ProAgro Ethiopia project highlighted the important contributions of agribusiness development promotion to employment creation, decent incomes and economic growth. He stressed that while the Government is embarking on attracting foreign investment into the agro-processing sector, youth and women should seize the opportunity to participate in the supply chains by being entrepreneurial and creating own businesses. He stated, “The ILO works with the tripartite constituents to leverage industrial policies for promoting more and better jobs through skills in enterprise development, and therefore the element of digitalization of agribusinesses is crucial for growth and decent job creation.”
Social partners, in their opening remarks, also highlighted the importance of networking and digitalization as pathways to growth of businesses, skills and knowledge transfers, and improve market access.
Solomon Tadesse, Country Director, DOT Ethiopia also underlined the importance of networking and digitization to expand businesses highlighting the advantages of business networking in terms of negotiation, investment attraction, marketing and branding, and knowledge and technology sharing.
In addition to multiple branches, the women started accepting orders via phone calls and their social media pages, and are currently working on to launch a website.
On the second day of the event practical use of e-commerce in the agri-business sector was discussed and selected e-commerce service providers operational in Ethiopia explained their business and how they operate in the country and encouraged the SMEs to use the digital platform to sell their products and services.
The ProAgro Ethiopia project is an ILO project funded by the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Its primary objective is to support job creation, labour formalization, and enterprise development in the agricultural and agro-processing sectors in Ethiopia. The project adopts a comprehensive approach that combines policy support, social dialogue, skills development, value chain enhancement, and entrepreneurship training. Its goal is to generate decent job opportunities for women and young men in the agribusiness sector.
Digital Opportunities Trust (DOT) collaborates with the Ministry of Labour and Skills (MOLS) and the ILO ProAgro Programme to promote Decent Jobs in agribusinesses and is implementing the national jobs creation agenda through self-employment for youth and women.
The objective of this two-day event was to foster the creation of business networks, cooperatives and relevant linkages that boost business-to-business engagements for inclusive growth and creation of more and better jobs. The majority of women and youth led agribusiness under the ProAgro assistance face the challenge of sustaining their investments because of lack of access to information on how to improve their ventures, how to reach and build their clientele, and even to attract partnerships. It is therefore against this backdrop of market access challenges for agribusinesses that the event was organized to explore better market access through digital solutions, and network building. The two-day Business-to-Business (B2B) event brought together a total 40 youth and women-led agribusinesses with e-commerce service providers to showcase digital market platforms, the different agribusiness products, and other opportunities for business growth.
In his opening remarks Anthony Agyenta, Project Manager, ILO ProAgro Ethiopia project highlighted the important contributions of agribusiness development promotion to employment creation, decent incomes and economic growth. He stressed that while the Government is embarking on attracting foreign investment into the agro-processing sector, youth and women should seize the opportunity to participate in the supply chains by being entrepreneurial and creating own businesses. He stated, “The ILO works with the tripartite constituents to leverage industrial policies for promoting more and better jobs through skills in enterprise development, and therefore the element of digitalization of agribusinesses is crucial for growth and decent job creation.”
Social partners, in their opening remarks, also highlighted the importance of networking and digitalization as pathways to growth of businesses, skills and knowledge transfers, and improve market access.
Solomon Tadesse, Country Director, DOT Ethiopia also underlined the importance of networking and digitization to expand businesses highlighting the advantages of business networking in terms of negotiation, investment attraction, marketing and branding, and knowledge and technology sharing.
| Women dominate in the business of producing, collecting and sale of food value chains (spices, fruits and vegetables) but are hardly visible, nor have the opportunities to grow their investments. Bringing them together as associations helps them create a voice and better empower to approach policy makers and other market actors to secure better deals for inputs, infrastructure and market. A panel discussion was convened to share experiences on the benefits of networking and cooperative relationships among business entrepreneurs. DOT has supported a group of women in Hawassa, the Birtu Baltna Network. The Group representatives in the panel discussions explained the factors that motivated them into forming a network (lack of information about products, pricing, quality management and export opportunities). They signalled how the business network helped them to be efficient, produce quality products based on feedback from clients, and reach out to more customers opening multiple market opportunities. |
On the second day of the event practical use of e-commerce in the agri-business sector was discussed and selected e-commerce service providers operational in Ethiopia explained their business and how they operate in the country and encouraged the SMEs to use the digital platform to sell their products and services.
The ProAgro Ethiopia project is an ILO project funded by the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Its primary objective is to support job creation, labour formalization, and enterprise development in the agricultural and agro-processing sectors in Ethiopia. The project adopts a comprehensive approach that combines policy support, social dialogue, skills development, value chain enhancement, and entrepreneurship training. Its goal is to generate decent job opportunities for women and young men in the agribusiness sector.
Digital Opportunities Trust (DOT) collaborates with the Ministry of Labour and Skills (MOLS) and the ILO ProAgro Programme to promote Decent Jobs in agribusinesses and is implementing the national jobs creation agenda through self-employment for youth and women.