Country: Kenya
Lead organisation: African Agency for Arid Resources
African Agency for Arid Resources Ltd is a company that deals with resources from arid and semi-arid regions of Eastern Africa. It has developed the successful personal care brand Jua, locally manufactured with an emphasis on ingredients from the arid lands of Kenya.
In line with its work, the company is establishing a for-profit business incubator (entrepreneur support organisation) called the KAVADI Business Incubator©®, focused on entrepreneurs and enterprises based solely in Northern Kenya focused on value addition, circularity, and climate resilience, with a particular emphasis on empowering women and youth to be located within AGAR Ltd premises in Nanyuki.
The incubator will address various issues such as marginalisation and lack of knowledge, skills, market access and investor connections, which cause many enterprises in these regions to fail. Beneficiaries of the incubator will be integrated within the Jua personal care supply chain for sustainability, and develop their own new products for new markets.