Kosi Yankey is a young Ghanaian entrepreneur and the project director of the Mobile Business Clinic (MBC), which provides mentorship and training to local agribusinesses in the region.

The MBC was formed through a partnership by the Canadian International Development Agency, the Lundin Foundation and Engineers Without Borders to address the challenges facing local small and medium agribusinesses across the supply chain.

“There is a huge problem and a gap in the agribusiness sector especially in capacity building of middle managers and CEOs, and because of that it makes it difficult for agribusinesses in Africa to access finance,” Yankey told How we made it in Africa.

“So [the partners of the MBC] came up with some form of solution which is capacity building to grow the businesses and get them from one level to another based on matrixes that we have developed… to see how we can get businesses from where they are to a point where investors will be interested in putting money into their businesses.”

Yankey is also the founder of Nuba Foods and Commodities, a business that sources produce from local farmers – mostly in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire – and supplies them to industries in West Africa. The company also processes and markets a range of specialty foods and works with over 100 local farmers, most of whom are women.

Her experience and passion for agriculture has taught her that the lack of access to finance, a common challenge facing small-scale farmers across the continent, often exists because these entrepreneurs require capacity building in their businesses.

In a Skype interview, Yankey speaks about the future of agribusiness in the region, her advice to agribusiness entrepreneurs and where potential opportunities lie in the sector.