European impact investment fund Moringa SCA SICAR (Moringa) has invested US$5 million in B-BOVID, a farming and palm oil processing company in Ghana that is aiming to transform agribusiness in Ghana through farming entrepreneurship and agroforestry.
Founded in 2014 by iIssa Ouedraogo, a Ghanaian social entrepreneur and son of a local farming family, B-BOVID is a national and UN award-winning farming and processing business that promotes a new model of socially-inclusive commercial farming that integrates innovative ecologically-minded agro-forestry production methods.
Moringa was launched in 2014 by a partnership between Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity and ONF International. From its offices in Paris and Geneva, the fund provides equity financing for sustainable farming operations that use agroforestry – the combined planting of trees with agricultural crops – across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Morninga states that agroforestry will be key in the global response to higher demand for sustainable agricultural production and timber. Through the combined planting of trees and crops, agroforestry has the power to conserve biodiversity, alleviate poverty by creating additional income streams, and provide a profitable alternative to practices that are responsible for deforestation, all while generating better risk mitigation in both the short and long term, and higher profitability in the long term.
“This partnership between Moringa and B-BOVID is our first investment in Ghana and it reinforces Moringa’s presence in Western Africa and its strategies to create strong sustainable practices on the continent,” said Adrien Henry, investment director, Moringa.
Initially, B-BOVID established a 110-hectare demonstration plantation where the company showcased oil palm production that employed agroforestry methods. The company also has established a comprehensive training program that educates farmers on the best agroforestry-farming methods and management practices that will result in the greatest revenue diversification, lowest environmental impact, and support social inclusion.
Through this framework, the company has trained thousands of farmers, and currently produces crude and kernel palm oil from fruits produced by more than 2,000 growers, and is a source of beta carotene from red palm oil, a key nutrient for healthy growth in young children.
“The agreement with Morninga is a recognition by the international investors’ community of B-BOVID Ltd’s credibility and viability as a social enterprise, providing sustainable solutions to deforestation, unemployment, and poverty in the country,” said Ouedraogo.
The capital from this investment will be used by B-BOVID to increase its engagement with up to 4,000 farmers in the coming years; to strengthen its novel, out-grower-based polyculture oil palm production model, and for the maintenance and preservation of the trees in the implementation of the model. It will also be used to modernize the company’s manufacturing plant; to expand production capacity; and to improve the livelihoods of the area’s farmers.
“We are already working to strengthen the company’s human resources, and increase its overall efficiency while consolidating its position as a leading center of agroforestry and livelihood enhancement activities in Ghana and beyond,” said Henry. “Following Moringa’s bold investment strategy, we will strive for achieving a sustainable polyculture model around palm oil farming and serve both local and regional markets.”
~ Lynda Kiernan
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