AgDevCo Investment in a Rwandan poultry company

This investment will allow Uzima to reach a production capacity of 8–10 mill. chicks a year, AgDevCo stated. Furthermore, the company estimates that within five years 1,000,000 smallholder farmers in the region will benefit by earning up to $30–50 per household from egg and meat production.

"We are delighted that AgDevCo Rwanda is making this investment in Uzima. 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,” Joseph Shields, Co-founder of Uzima Chicken, said.

“We believe Uzima Chicken can transform the poultry market in Rwanda by delivering improved birds to hundreds of thousands of households. 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,” Chris Isaac, Regional Director AgDevCo, added.

Uzima is an early-stage poultry company which provides day-old chicks to smallholder farmers throughout Rwanda. It is sponsored by Flow Equity, a US-based investor, which has successfully developed a similar business model in Ethiopia. Uzima currently operates from premises leased from the Government of Rwanda in Rubirizi, Kigali.

AgDevCo is a social impact investor, which provides patient capital in the form of debt and equity to early-stage agribusinesses in sub-Saharan Africa. Its mission is to reduce poverty and improve food security. The company has invested over $100 mill. in 57 agribusinesses to date, connecting over 240,000 farmers to markets and supporting over 7,600 jobs. In Rwanda, AgDevCo is funded through DFID’s (UKAid) IMSAR programme.