A total of 300 companies operating along the Nacala Corridor and in Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, are in line to benefit over the next three months from seminars that promote links between financial institutions and business development service providers, the Agência de Informação de Moçambique reported this Monday, 8 July .
According to the agency, the action is an initiative of Feed The Future (FTF) Premier-Oholo (PRO), a project worth two billion meticals (32.2 million dollars), which will be implemented over five years in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
FTF PRO aims to improve agribusiness by leveraging value-added opportunities to attract private investment. The initiative’s organisers held a seminar last Friday (5) to which they invited 42 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), six financial institutions and an equal number of business development service providers, and where some success stories of four entrepreneurs were presented.
The project’s director, Muhamad Hanif, emphasised the importance of the event in promoting a more inclusive market system and stressed that the initiative aims to create new opportunities for growth and development for the region’s MSMEs.
“One of the main challenges faced by companies in the northern region is access to finance, so we are with various partners from the financial sector, commercial banking, microfinance institutions and business development service providers who will support this link between companies and financial services,” he explained.
Muhamad Hanif advised young people in particular “not to give up, because there are many opportunities coming up. The most important thing is that they prepare themselves to take advantage of them. That’s the most important thing.
The FTF PRO project plans to impact 112,000 people, including women and young people, in their small, medium and large businesses, so that they increase their income and promote a more competitive, inclusive and resilient market system, to reduce poverty and increase food security.