Kenneth Naturinda

Ekibbo links farmers to a range of services – guaranteed markets, logistics support, trainings on improving production and agroforestry models, farm inputs, loans, carbon credit schemes, and takes a small fee for the linkages made.

Roles and Experience.

• Growing farmer recruitment in the Ekibbo program to 500 farmers in 2023 with a target of 2000 farmers by end of 2024.
• Develop supply chains for coffee, Vanilla, Cocoa, Jackfruit, sweet potatoes and Matooke and any additional value chain.
• Manage a team of extension workers to provide relevant support and training to the farmers.
• Manage relationships and transactions with buyers like Ugacof, Dreyfus Louis Company and Esco.
• Manage product logistics from Farm to Market.
• Build a sound business case for Ekibbo and farmers of different agricultural products.
• Led the development of traceability system (Eprod system).
• Support in relevant monitoring and evaluation requirements for the business.

Fiber Foods is an impact first company which aims at building sustainable agricultural value chains in Uganda and create economic, social and sustainable value for all stakeholders with the current focus on Jackfruit.

Roles and Experience

• Lead the setup of the jackfruit supply chain with 4 key suppliers and a network of 3000+ farmers by building both technical and organizational capacity to meet the company quality and quality requirements for jackfruits required for export.
• Mentor and motivate field staff to consistently meet and exceed department KPIs.
• Lead the development of the logistics and export process for Fiber Foods in order to meet the market demands of jackfruit as a plant based meat alternative in Netherlands.
• Develop consensus with suppliers on operational requirements to ensure Fiber Foods traceability quality standards are fulfilled by suppliers.
• Develop, coordinate, and enforces tools, policies, processes, and practices to support supply planning processes and related systems.
• Monitor, identify and develop solutions to challenges and risks facing the implementation of the supply process.

Business Lab Uganda was an accelerator program supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to help existing Ugandan agribusinesses get access to buyers and investors in the Netherlands.

Roles and Experience.

• Successfully completed the setup of the accelerator program's local operations.
• Led the development of two agricultural value chains (Dried fruits & jackfruit) earning the program another year of funding from the Dutch embassy and path to sustainability for the jackfruit value chain.
• Managed the rollout and monitoring of BLU program according to the strategic objectives of our funders (Dutch embassy)
• Led the selection of 7 out of 15 companies that have acquired a new revenue stream through Fiber Foods Group in the Jackfruit value chain.

Balloon Ventures is a UK based investment firm that invests in Small and Medium Enterprises from poverty-reducing sectors in East Africa which have the potential to create lots of Good Jobs.

Roles and Experience.

• Develop a quality pipeline of SMEs with massive potential through industry research, market research and screening activities.
• Ensure great deals are signed which are attractive to investees and profitable for Balloon Ventures through due diligence, financial and risk analysis on entrepreneurial projects.
• Pitch and provide investment committee reports on several investment opportunities available from selected enterprises.
• Support the development of post investment consulting and action plans.
• Contribute to the development of an investment play book for investment decisions through insights collected, stored, shared and leveraged systematically and with precision.
• Building an ecosystem that facilitates linkages between entrepreneurs and communities of operation.
• Developed and managed a portfolio of 9 SMEs (including hotels, schools, petrol station, oil seed processing company, large tailoring operation ) that received technical assistance and financial investment.

Volunteer Africa Program is a Citi Bank initiative that engages junior employees to share experiences and skills to help local entrepreneurs in East Africa to grow their businesses, create jobs and build livelihoods in disadvantaged communities.

Roles and Experience

• Recruitment of over 50 local entrepreneurs to participate in the program.
• Pre-programme training for entrepreneurs.
• Carrying out full risk assessments of the community and places where volunteers will visit out of community.
• Logistics management.
• Completing the relevant monitoring and evaluation documentation.
• Coordination with and support to local partners.
• Successfully setup and implemented two projects in Jinja in 2017 and 2018.

The Citi Foundation program was an initiative by Citi Bank focused on economic empowerment and financial inclusion of low to moderate income people in Jinja and Mbale by providing business support services.

Roles and Experience.

• Recruitment of entrepreneurs through multiple screening methods to identify suitable candidates.
• Provide Pre -investment Business analysis and diligence support.
• Support to map, identify, prioritize and engage relevant entrepreneurial ecosystem players and potential partners.
• Provide continuous support to pilot projects in terms of facilitation and provision of needed knowledge and expertise.
• Support in case writing on several business projects and provide practical assistance to international and local consultants during case writing process and provide input to the cases.
• Provide post "interest free loan" support in areas of financial literacy, strategy and marketing to businesses.
• Launched and coordinated feasibility studies on 6 selected business projects, ascertained growth and investment alternatives.

The mentorship is a program focused at developing young Christian leaders in the 7 mountains of influence ( Media, Family, Business, Education, Religion, politics and Entertainment)

Roles and experience

• Recruitment of the technical team.
• Leading team in developing structures, systems and handbook for a National Mentorship Providing leadership insight and training to the technical team.
• Successfully organized over 30 Mentorship events for young leaders.
• Developed the first draft of of The Mentorship handbook.
• Recruitment of over 100 young leaders in the Mentorship program.

Through a global network of incubators, Global Business Labs supported driven entrepreneurs in building their ventures by providing infrastructure, coaching, knowledge and network to ensure faster time to market, faster growth and higher survival rate.

Roles and experience

• Provide on- going business advisory and coaching to startups in Marketing, Strategy and Management.
• Recruitment of suitable startup business through a series of screening activities.
• Coach and guide entrepreneurs in business plan development and analysis.
• Development and coordination of the organization partner network.
• Recruitment and marketing the program to a tune of over 7,000 potential student entrepreneurs through presentations, events and onsite activities.
• Companies coached graduated through the accelerator program and signed profit sharing agreements with Global Business Lab. The rest of the companies (5) pivoted to new lines of business.
• Supported the building of a strong partner network with world class international and regional partners like KPMG, Moringa Ogilvy Uganda, among others