Business Skills Training Refines Community Processors' Trade Strategy
Nancy Nandudu
The Pallisa Agri-business Training Association (PATA) in Kibuku became the first recipient of a Business Development training workshop conducted by the Africa Innovations Institute (AfrII) in October 2014, under the second phase of its Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) project. The training is one of several training activities geared towards improving the business management skills of selected Community Processing Groups (CPGs) in eastern, central and northern Uganda.
In a bid to help the participants to increase the production of High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF), High Quality Cassava Chips (HQCC) and High Quality Cassava Grits (HQCG) and meet the high demand from end user markets in and around Kampala, AfrII built their capacity in different aspects of business development.
Members were equipped with skills in business planning and record keeping. As a result of the training, PATA has been able to increase its production of “Gari” a popular and highly marketable delicacy among communities in Kampala Uganda, using HQCF. The association has also been able to partially fill the unemployment gap in the community by recruiting youth to take up the production of “Gari.”
As such, the association enjoys a great deal of respect and acceptance among the local community, an aspect which provides much needed business in terms of both sale of products and provision of cassava roots necessary for the production of HQCF, HQCC and HQCG.
At a national level, PATA has also utilized their increased business skills and knowledge gained from the C:AVA project to access linkages to high end user markets, especially in the biscuit industry.
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