Agribiz programs

About KIC Agribusiness Build Up

The Kosmos Innovation Center Agribusiness Build Up (AgriBiz Build Up) is a step-down version of its impactful AgriBiz Challenge (AgriBiz Challenge); a program much-admired for inspiring young people into becoming innovators and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s agriculture sector since 2016. The AgriBiz Build Up program carved out the several experiences garnered from the implementation of the AgriBiz Challenge program. These experiences have further been assimilated into accommodating the unique focus of KICs partnership program with the ACDI/VOCA on the Feed the Future Ghana Market Systems and Resilience Activity being implemented in Northern Ghana.

Unlike its forebear, that is the AgriBiz Challenge which focuses on spurring the interest of students in Ghana’s tertiary institutions in the agriculture sector and challenging them to develop innovative responses to identified challenges of the sector, the AgriBiz Build Up program would seek participation from youth both the formal and informal sectors. It will challenge them to come out with innovative, value-added and technology driven solutions to improving agriculture productivity in Northern Ghana. The program would seek to achieve this by facilitating key market actors such as youth, women, and other marginalized groups to take advantage of the opportunities in the agro-entrepreneurship ecosystem. AgriBiz Build Up program just like the AgriBiz Challenge shall be sub-divided into two halves, that is AgriBiz Build Up Intermediate and AgriBiz Build Up Advance. Whereas the AgriBiz Build Up Intermediate shall be the entry level for youth within the 17 Zones of Influence (ZOI) enthusiastic about participating actively in the nations agriculture sector through their own up and coming businesses, the AgriBiz Build Up Advance will be the nurturing for growth and sustainability element of the program. This will be open to existing start-ups including those that emerge from the Intermediate level as truly innovative and impact laden.

The program shall be composed of a series of training courses across various thematic areas including entrepreneurship, leadership, group dynamics, business management etc. Mentorship, coaching and network of support shall equally be extended to participants. To set agribusinesses on the road map to success, KIC shall provide seed funding to at least two (2) top-emerging businesses annually.  

How to Apply for AgriBiz Build Up

Apply now for 2024 Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) AgriBiz Build-Up Challenge is made possible by the USAID-supported Feed the Future Ghana Market Systems and Resilience (MSR) Activity.

  • Are you a  young person between the ages of 15 – 35 years?    
  • Do you have a passion for business development in the agricultural or support sectors?
  • Do you feel you lack the tools and support to develop your agricultural or agricultural support sector business ideas?
  • Are you living in any of the seventeen (17) districts listed below?
  • Northern Region districts (Yendi, Gushegu, Karaga, Mion, Sagnarigu, Nanton),
  • North-East Region districts (Mamprugu Moagduri, East Mamprusi),
  • Upper West Region districts (Nadowli Kaleo, Wa East, Daffiama Bussie Issa, Sissala East, Sissala West) and
  • Upper East Region districts (Tempane, Garu, Bawku Municipal, Bawku West)

If you answer yes to the above questions, apply for the KIC’s AgriBiz Build-Up Challenge by visiting www.kicghana.org.

The KIC AgriBiz Build Up Challenge is a 5-month ideation program that provides young people (15-35 years) with a range of training, workshops, and support to develop their business ideas into economically viable agricultural and agricultural support enterprises. The program will use coaching and market research tours to encourage participants to take a fresh look at the agriculture value chain and identify innovative business opportunities to pursue. Exciting ideas will be supported to conduct market analysis, develop a business plan, produce a signature product, conduct a market test, and elaborate and build skills to deliver a business pitch to access start-up or expansion grant financing.

For further inquiries, call 024 431 1230 / 054 641 2020 / 053 101 4495

Application deadline: November 29, 2024.

The KIC Agribiz Build Up Intermediate is intended to support in developing the interest and building the mindset of youth and women towards their active participation in the agriculture value chain for their economic empowerment and the socio-economic development of the Zone of Influence (ZOI).  This program would thus create the enabling environment for both the educated and non-educated youth and women inspired and fire-up for effective participation in the regions agriculture space to do so. The program shall subsequently provide ancillary support including networking opportunities to build and grow viable solutions to the agricultural challenges in northern Ghana and the country.

KIC AgriBiz Build Up Intermediate shall therefore work with enthusiastic young people who are interested in tapping into the challenges in the agriculture sector over a 3 months period, turning them into business opportunities thereby contributing to a more responsive agriculture sector and creating sustainable businesses for their economic empowerment.  The program will inspire and challenge its participants to start agribusinesses through series of well carved out trainings, workshops, exposure visits, networking, and funding support.  

As part of the strategies to deliver the program, coaching sessions, and market exposure visits across Ghana will be facilitated to encourage participants to broaden their horizons on the opportunities existing within the agriculture value chain that have a propensity of becoming viable businesses for their economic empowerment and the ameliorating of bottlenecks encountered by farmers and the country in dealing with challenges to food security.

Training on business formation, management, teamwork, financial management etc.  will form part of the preliminary training activities of the AgriBiz Build-Up program. Another key feature of this program will be the sessions on group formation and dynamics. This shall precede the formation of teams by individual participants of the program. This teams shall be the units tasked to take viable business ideas to the next level by competing through pitching events that will be organized.

Owing to the diverse nature of participants of this program, participants will be allowed to pitch their innovative business ideas in languages they are most comfortable with. This thus implies that ideation team members will be constituted based on the characteristics of participants.

Highly innovative and scalable businesses at this level (Intermediate) of the program shall go into the next stage (Advance) where they stand the chance of receiving seed funding in addition to after care/ incubation support.

The KIC AgriBiz Build-up Advance is a 2-month acceleration program aimed at equipping existing early-stage teams or AgriBiz startups with the right tools, funding, and support to bring their business ideas or products to market. The program will further prepare these businesses for a scaling up, present them with avenues to meet potential investors through an organized investor day program. Investors shall range from Angel investors, financial institutions to Venture capitalists. At this stage in the development of their businesses and start-ups, participants will be required and supported to produce prototypes (Minimum Viable Product) of their products for exhibition, assessment and vetting by key industry players including regulators.

Program target participants and duration 

This program targets youth between the ages of 15 and 35 living in the USAID ZOI. This unique program of KIC, though like the KIC AgriTech Challenge Pro is open to youth both with or without formal education. The curriculum for this program will make room for participants to effectively participate in their preferred languages. Though a competition based on periodic pitching, this program will allow participants to pitch their ideas in their local languages or any language or format they are eloquent or comfortable in. This program is designed with the goal of propelling teams to reach higher heights in their entrepreneurial journey. In collaboration with both private and public Business Development Service (BDS) providers, the program will provide incubation services to young business at the various Business Advisory and Resource Centers districts. The AgriBiz Hub in the Northern Sector program office of KIC will also serve as a space for business acceleration and incubation.

Subsequently, applicants to the program will participate in an orientation and business diagnostics, market exposure visits, pitches and then an investment announcement and onboarding into the KIC Incubator program. There are a series of capacity building sessions, business activities, feedback sessions, industry talks and team-by-team meetings throughout the program.

The KIC Women Agribusiness Elevate is a program that equips young women in tertiary educational institutions and also at the community, peri-urban and grass roots levels with the skills and knowledge needed to develop innovative agri-business ideas and provide mentoring and coaching. In addition, the program seeks to empower female entrepreneurs in Ghana’s agribusiness value chain and create a pipeline of women in KIC’s zone of influence to participate in the KIC Agribusiness Build-up and Sprint programs and in the agriculture space.  The Elevate entails capacity building and training in structured entrepreneurship modules including marketing, business communication, customer care, business planning, among others. Its curriculum entails an exposition of women to opportunities for women in the agricultural value chain left untapped.

 This program runs for a maximum of 2-days. Participants of this program are women and girls between the ages 15-35 within the USAID zone of influence.

The AgriBiz Sprint Program is a 3-month growth and acceleration program targeted at Ghanaian owned Agri-MSMEs and FBOs. The program is in partnership with the Feed the Future Ghana Market System and Resilience (MSR) Activity which aims to strengthen and spur the growth of Agri-MSMEs and FBOs in agriculture value chains in Ghana. Successful applicant Agri-MSMEs and FBOs should demonstrate capacity, a willingness to explore alternative funding sources,  and be ready to scale up operations.

This program is opened for the participation of young entrepreneurs between the ages of 15 and 35 within the USAID Zone of Influence who are into some form of entrepreneurial activities. The rationale of this program is to prepare young business for growth and to facilitate their readiness for interaction with business investors. It entails a series of capacity building sessions crafted to facilitate business attractiveness to investors. These sessions include the following Building an identity for your business, Revenue Model & Unit Economics, Legal Documents: Contracts, MOUs.

To be eligible to apply, an organization must:

  1. Be a Ghanaian-owned business, meaning at least founder must be Ghanaian.
  2. Be a registered business and with a tax identification number (TIN).
  3. Have been operating in the agriculture sector of Ghana for at least 2 year (post registration) with a proven business model in place.
  4. Have gained traction and are looking to further expand (i.e., seeking growth capital and the ambition to want to scale up operations).
  5. Be able to attend the entire 3-month program and willing to work with the KIC team of trainers, mentors, and coaches, in-person and/or remotely.
  6. Commit to completing our surveys on impact measurement and growth for the next 36 months.

Participants exit this program after a successfully participating in an investor day event where they get to meet and interact with varying types of investors including equity investors, angel investors and financial institutions. Upon a successful source of funding/investment, KIC migrates all business into a 1-year business incubation program where it provides extra support for business growth, effective utilization of resources and sustainability.

2024 KIC AgriBiz Sprint is Open. Click Here to Apply