Grants awarded

With the Round 1 grantees and colleagues at the
signing ceremony.

In July, ABIF signed its first grant agreements, the Fund has now committed around US$2.6m as a contribution to total private sector investment of US$13.3m across seven projects.

This means that from the first round alone, we have already exceeded the target total investment set for the entire project... and we still have more than 2/3 of our grant fund to distribute. This fantastic achievement is down to the hard work and the patient perseverance of the applicants and the whole ABIF team, who have worked together over the past months to develop some truly innovative and exciting investment projects.

The projects we are supporting from the first round are:

• A chain of branded pharmacies, bringing a new retail business model to Afghanistan and promising an approach built on reputation and trust. We estimate that poor people are spending something like US$10-20m per year on counterfeit medicines in Kabul alone. The introduction of a brand that guarantees that the medicines being sold in its name are genuine represents a major market change.
• Two new cashmere investment projects in Herat, one Afghan and the other international. These projects will significantly expand Afghanistan's cashmere processing capacity creating manufacturing jobs and increasing export earnings. Significantly, both will also dramatically improve market access for small farmers through the construction of a network of collection centres in western Afghanistan.
• A young business that has been running a pilot project for the last 8 months will step up its production of computer assisted design and machine produced furniture components to a commercial scale thanks to a relatively small grant. This innovation will allow Afghan carpenters to purchase the decorative pieces they need to make their furniture more competitive against imports.
• In the north of Afghanistan, we are supporting a new edible oils production and bottling plant. The investor will secure supplies through contract farming arrangements with thousands of local producers, providing small scale credit facilities as well as cultivation training and access to improved inputs.
• An established business based in Kabul will be setting up a carton producing factory. The company will purchase agricultural waste, convert it to pulp and manufacture cartons for use in the horticulture sector. This will open up a new income stream for small farmers supplying the waste to collection centres and the cartons will make a significant contribution to reducing post-harvest losses for farmers.
• An Afghan company with connections to Turkish suppliers has been piloting the introduction of certified rootstock and new orchard technology in Balkh province over the last few years. They are now ready to step up their production and distribution of high yield trees. With ABIF support, the company will be setting up a new nursery near Kabul and will be selling hundreds of thousands of trees and the associated technical equipment throughout Afghanistan.

It is so pleasing to see the work of the past months come to fruition in this way. Of course, signing the grant agreement is only the start... we now have to see these projects implemented and achieving the impact that we think is possible. Watch this space for news as the projects mature.