When Goretti Itoka started his cassava, potato and edible chips business in 2020, it was hard to raise investment. He couldn’t afford a processing facility or a store where customers could buy the snacks.
“My production started in my boyfriend’s apartment: slicing and frying in the living room, packaging and storage in a spare room, peeling and other production steps in the kitchen and backyard.” she recalls.
Doing business in Liberia is generally difficult, but the challenges are even more pronounced for women who need more cash to support their businesses. Some are borrowing money from banks at high interest rates and defaulting on the repayments. According to the World Bank, women Represent They represent a small proportion of formal small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing markets and face many constraints to success.
Women entrepreneurs face more constraints and less favourable terms when it comes to accessing capital. Reducing constraints will level the playing field and open up more opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
Despite these obstacles, women Goretti Her work to empower local farmers to increase agricultural production and reduce food insecurity is visible today. “My goal is to empower women farmers,” she said.
she Business, Agriculture Lettyworks with 80 farmers in Bong, Lofa, Nimba and Margibi counties. She gives them tools, equipment and cash to grow edo and cassava, then buys their harvest.
“We have a contract with them and when they grow it, we buy it from them at a certain price that is below the market price and give them market access.”
Food insecurity and malnutrition remain major concerns in Liberia, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian invasion.
August 2022, Liberia Food Security, Nutrition, Livelihoods and Markets Assessment found 2.2 million Liberians are food insecure, representing 47 percent of all households, of which 39 percent are moderately food insecure and 8 percent are severely food insecure.
An estimated 416,000 people are in need of urgent food assistance. These severely food insecure people live mainly in the counties most severely food insecure, particularly in the southeastern counties: Maryland, Sinoe, Bong, Lofa, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Kuru, Gabalpolu, Grand Gedeh and River Gee.
Large quantities of cassava and edo are produced every week. Aggroletti The processing facility is located on Duport Road in Paynesville. Goretti said the weekly production volume is determined by customer demand. The products are sold in major supermarkets in Monrovia.
In Liberia, agriculture accounts for 36% of gross domestic product and an average of 14% of total export earnings. Women play a key role in agriculture: they make up approximately 80% of the agricultural workforce and are responsible for 93% of food crop production. Despite this, women face challenges in accessing agricultural inputs and financing.
According to data from the Liberia Companies Registry, the number of businesses registered by women increased from 2018 to 2023.
Attorney DeContee King Sackie, managing partner of ZE’AD consultancy, said women-owned businesses account for about one-third of all formal businesses in Liberia, but they often have lower profits than men-owned businesses.
“Women entrepreneurs tend to work informally in low-productivity sectors such as small-scale retail and trading, and they face significant limitations in their access to business networks and market information,” King Sakky said.
These constraints forced women to seek loans from financial institutions with unfavourable interest rates. As a result, there were cases where payments were delayed or could not be made at all.
King Sakky, who is also a chartered accountant, added that women accessing loans from banks should improve. Access to business assets and credit.
“So that includes microfinance options, but they have to be specifically tailored to women’s needs, credit systems and financial literacy. And that can probably be done by finding targeted financial products and services.”
As fundraising remains difficult, one option could be to offer grants to women-owned businesses that don’t have to be repaid.
“Grants give us the freedom and flexibility to expand without worrying about the burden of loan payments,” says Brenda Moore, executive director of the Kids Education and Engagement Project (KEEP), an NGO that provides reading opportunities for children.
Mrs. Moore is also an entrepreneur. She says that women entrepreneurs struggle with access to capital, finance and capital. “When you get loans from most banks, they usually have shorter repayment periods and higher interest rates.”
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a grant scheme to support Liberian businesses in 2021. The initiative follows research conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), which revealed that a lack of specific targeted lending products from financial institutions in the country is trapping farmers from subsistence farming.
The programme, known as the Growth Acceleration Programme, will provide co-funding grants of US$40,000 to small and medium-sized enterprises, which will be awarded through a competitive process to businesses located in Montserrado, Lofa, Grand Cape Mount, Nimba, Grand Bassa, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh counties.
The program, implemented by iCampus Liberia in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce, provides business management knowledge and skills through targeted capacity-building training, workshops, and practical coaching and mentoring services. Additionally, the program facilitates access to capital to accelerate the growth of these enterprises and cooperatives.
So far, 45 enterprises and cooperatives have benefited from the program, of which 37% are women-led and 46% are youth-led. In the first phase (2021), 10 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) were developed. The second phase (2022) included 14 MSMEs and 10 agricultural cooperatives. The third phase (2023) will include 10 MSMEs and 10 agricultural cooperatives, bringing the total to 34 MSMEs and 20 cooperatives.
The program is aimed at supporting enterprises, particularly revenue-generating small and medium-sized enterprises, commercially oriented agricultural cooperatives, and forestry-related enterprises, which, by scaling up their operations, will contribute significantly to the development of the national economy through increased revenue and job creation.
Grant recipients undergo a rigorous selection process that involves meeting certain criteria such as having been operating as a business for at least one year, having a valid tax certificate, being registered with the Business Registry, maintaining an office and presenting a future business plan which must be submitted to a selection committee.
““We will have an independent selection committee that will go through the applications and shortlist them and then do our due diligence to verify all the information that we put on the shortlist and then once that is done we will come back and make a final selection of that group,” said Luther Jake, CEO of iCampus Liberia.
Last year, the program received over 200 applications from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from 11 counties in Liberia, of which 31.2% were women-led, 68.8% were men-led, and 53.9% were youth-led. Of these, 20 enterprises, including 10 MSMEs and 10 agricultural cooperatives, were awarded grants of US$40,000 to improve and grow their businesses and increase their commercial viability.
In 2023, Aggroletti Goretti was one of the grant recipients. She said she received $39,800 and used it to buy new machinery that has made her job easier. “The UNDP grant helped my company. With the grant, I got a new slicer. Before, I was slicing the edo and cassava by hand, which was very hard work, but with the grant, I was able to buy two machines. You just put the edo in the machine, and the machine washes, slices and fries it for you,” she said.
“Before the grant, we used manual slicers. Women would sit and work for hours. We were using manual slicers, which was very costly and time-consuming. When you get to the last bit, you have to throw it away, which is not good, but now with the machine, it can be sliced much faster. Before, it took me 10 hours to slice five bags of cassava. Now, depending on the generator, it can be sliced in two hours. It is very fast, which is a relief because the women don’t have to worry about cutting themselves, because the machine slices it all for them. They just put the cassava in the machine and leave it.
“Demand was high and supply was low, but now things are going well. We can keep up with what our customers are asking for.”
“We’ve produced more in less time,” she added. “This has helped us expand our business.”
Another grant recipient, Voma Energy, shared how the funding has had a huge impact on their company: before the grant they only offered energy consulting, but thanks to the grant they are now able to build a small solar farm to provide lighting for the small town of Firestone.
Voma’s general manager, Hu-Miranda Sartee, and her team.
“This grant has been a blessing for us,” said Voma general manager Huw Miranda Surty.
In 2022, the Growth Accelerator Programme received 228 applications (156 male and 72 female), 188 companies (132 male and 56 female), and 40 agricultural cooperatives (24 male and 16 female), of which 13 companies were awarded, including seven SMEs (five male and two female) and six agricultural cooperatives (three male and three female), securing approximately US$40,000 each.
Also, in 2021, the first year of the program, 167 small businesses applied (115 men and 52 women), of which five were successful (four men and one woman), securing co-financing of between $36,500 and $40,000 each. Two of the co-financing recipients in Cohort 1 hired a total of 15 new employees and 20 contractors, resulting in a total of 35 new jobs (18 men and 17 women) being created in 2022. Seven of the businesses in Cohorts 1 and 2 also generated sales of $65,500.
“The long-term plan for the programme is to build the capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises to secure bank loans and other services so they can continue to grow,” said Abraman Tumbay, head of Green and Inclusive Growth at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He added that women can benefit by applying first if they meet the criteria.
