Root Capital clients grow rural prosperity by creating sustainable livelihoods. Root Capital began working in Africa in 2005 with loans to several coffee cooperatives. East Africa is now Root Capital’s largest African portfolio, with clients in coffee and other growing areas, including cocoa, nuts, honey, fresh vegetables, and spices.
In 2011, Nyirefami received its first working capital loan from Root Capital to finance the purchase of raw millet during and just after the harvest season. This financing has enabled the organization to nearly triple its quarterly purchases.
In 2005, the Dukundekawa coffee cooperative, also known as Musasa, became Root Capital’s first client in Africa. Since its founding in 2004, Musasa has grown from 300 to more than 1,800 members—among them many women who were made widows by the 1994 genocide.
Freshco, a Root Capital client since 2010, is a Kenyan company that sells high-yield, drought-resistant seed, primarily maize, to small-scale farmers. Maize seed that is optimized for the climates of Kenya’s various regions can produce up to two times more grain per hectare than ordinary seed. By providing better seed to farmers, Freshco is helping to feed a nation in which nearly three million are food insecure.
Maraba, is a Fair Trade Certified coffee cooperative located in southern Rwanda. Initially established in 1999 with just 70 small-scale producers, Maraba, with Root Capital financing, now has more than 1,300 registered members. Almost 40 percent of Maraba’s members are women, the large majority of whom are widows from the Rwandan genocide.
Founded in 2009 by South African cotton entrepreneur Bruce Robertson, the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC) is stimulating cotton growth in Uganda's impoverished Gulu district and creating economic opportunities for more than 40,000 smallholder farmers. GADC has received more than $3.5 million in financing over the past two years. Lending to GADC positively impacts the company's organic cotton output and helps civil war refugees in the region improve their livelihoods.
Since 2006, Root Capital has provided Kilicafe, an association of more than 12,000 small-scale farmers in Tanzania, with financing that has allowed the cooperative to purchase depulping machines, washing stations, and other equipment. With these new machines, Kilicafe has increased coffee quality, created employment, decreased polluted water by 80 percent, and increased incomes by 50 percent.
Gumutindo, which translates to “excellent coffee” in the local Lugisu language, is a second-level Ugandan coffee cooperative founded in 2003. Located on the slopes of Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda, it markets the coffee of six smaller primary cooperatives directly to Fair Trade and organic buyers in Europe and North America. With Root Capital financing, revenue has increased from $473 thousand to over $3 million, with payments to producers more than doubling.