Why Smart Agribusinesses Are Putting Women at the Center of Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
by Nathalie Gogue-Ebo, Katharina Weber & Bronze Ndambuki
Since its founding a decade ago, Kenyan agribusiness Nyabon has been focused on making the work of smallholder farmers easier and more productive through mechanisation. Recently, they spied a gap in the market they serve.
While their products had vastly reduced the intensity of physical labour for male farmers, they noticed that women on the same farms still did much of their work by hand. So Nyabon decided to develop a new line of lightweight machines for tilling and weeding, the jobs typically done by women. These new machines were a major hit, selling well and helping the company build a following of loyal female customers.
What is telling about this example is that Nyabon didn’t develop a product for women solely because it was interested in advancing gender equity in farming. The company did this because, quite simply, it was good business.
At Open Capital, a pan-African consulting and financial advisory firm, we have extensive experience at the nexus of gender and agriculture. We see a broader lesson here for the continent’s agricultural sector. Women make up half of the region’s farmers. That makes them a massive potential source of both providers and customers for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that serve the smallholder farmers powering sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural sector. By engaging women more intentionally, we have seen that SMEs can unlock growth, improve supply chain efficiency, and, as with Nyabon’s case, access new market segments. All of this drives higher sales and profitability, while at the same time helping to level the playing field for women farmers.
Over the last several years, we have advised hundreds of agriculture sector clients in 26 African countries, including many engagements focused on gender. Based on our experience, here are two proven effective ways to integrate more women into African agribusiness.
1. Mainstream gender in products and services
As Nyabon’s example shows, tailoring agricultural products and services to women can increase a company’s customer base, and with that, improve its bottom line. Research has shown that women drive many purchasing decisions in families, making them a particularly effective group to target with new products and services. And like anyone, they are more likely to buy and recommend products that cater to their needs. That offers companies an exciting opportunity to use female-centered products and services to differentiate their brand and increase customer loyalty.
“As Nyabon’s example shows, tailoring agricultural products and services to women can increase a company’s customer base, and with that, improve its bottom line. Research has shown that women drive many purchasing decisions in families, making them a particularly effective group to target with new products and services.”
But how do you figure out what women want? One effective way is simply to engage them in the design process - for instance through focus group discussions or stakeholder consultations. This allows potential customers to offer feedback on what works – and what doesn’t – before a product even hits the market. Market research can also help companies understand the needs and preferences of potential female consumers. But another, often-overlooked strategy is for companies to make sure they disaggregate all the data they collect – from information on suppliers to data on sales – by gender. That provides an easy source of data about women in a company’s supply chain, which can then help inform decision making.
Finally, companies should consider adjusting their sales and marketing strategies to better target female consumers. This may include crafting sales pitches specifically for women, hiring more women to make those pitches, and offering more flexible financing options to account for the barriers women face in accessing capital.
2. Mainstream gender in supply chains
Tailoring or improving financial access to the product or service to women isn’t the only way that companies can use a consideration of gender to drive growth and sustainability. They can also find ways to recruit and support women across their supply chains.
Consider the case of Kentaste, a Kenyan company that processes coconuts into products like oil, flour, milk, and cream. Their business rests heavily on having a steady supply of quality coconuts from small-scale farmers. But a few years ago, they were struggling to keep a roster of reliable suppliers. Then, in 2021, Kentaste participated in a programme that examined its business practices to find areas where it could better engage women. Through this process, the company discovered that its farmer recruitment and retention strategies were unintentionally overlooking women coconut growers.
In other words, it found out it had shrunk its own potential supply chain. And the suppliers it was missing out on weren’t just any farmers. The women farmers in Kentaste’s network proved less likely to default, provided higher quality inputs, and were more loyal to the company, reducing the very kind of turnover and instability that Kentaste was experiencing.
“The suppliers it was missing out on weren’t just any farmers. The women farmers in Kentaste’s network proved less likely to default, provided higher quality inputs, and were more loyal to the company.”
With all this in mind, the company developed a strategy to deliberately recruit female coconut farmers. Almost instantly, it saw nearly a three-fold increase in the number of female farmers it was onboarding as suppliers each month. Recognising that women farmers face multiple structural barriers that make them, on average, less productive than men, Kentaste also provided further support to these farmers. It enrolled them in training designed to help them improve their farming practices and yield.
All of this was a significant effort for the company, but the effort led to a “return on investment, both commercial and social,” company management reported. Like Nyabon, Kentaste didn’t incorporate women into their supply chains simply to be kind. The company did it because it had a business problem, and women suppliers were a critical solution.
The bottom line
Business is all about the bottom line, so here’s ours: Women are the backbone of sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural economy, so targeting them as both suppliers and consumers makes good financial sense. Put even more simply, agribusinesses that integrate gender into their supply chains and product designs outperform their competitors. And they do so while helping to close the gender gap in the farming industry, helping make communities and societies more equal.
Ultimately, these kinds of actions will help not just African women, but the entire agriculture sector in Africa thrive.