AUDA-NEPAD Podcast Series

Discover how a visionary entrepreneur is reshaping Malawi's agricultural landscape one tea leaf at a time. Ngabaghila Chatata, founder and managing director of Thanthwe Enterprise, shares her remarkable journey of building an innovative agribusiness that's creating wealth for 5,000 smallholder farmers while strengthening Malawi's food security and reducing import reliance.

Chatata takes us inside her climate-smart approach, where agricultural waste becomes valuable biofertilizer and cooking briquettes, addressing both soil health and women's energy needs. Her story reveals fascinating gender insights – when implementing waste conversion projects, women surprisingly embraced brick-making activities that men found burdensome. Why? Because these briquettes solved a pressing challenge women face during rainy seasons: accessing dry firewood for cooking. This discovery has fundamentally shaped how Thanthwe approaches community development, ensuring women gain time for more economically empowering activities.

Beyond farming innovations, Chatata is passionate about youth entrepreneurship. With over a billion young Africans entering the workforce in the coming decade, she's established an incubation center teaching resilience, business management, and marketing skills. Her message is clear and compelling: "I don't believe African regions will develop from white-collar jobs." Instead, she envisions youth-led industrialization, where Africa processes its own resources rather than exporting raw materials only to import finished products. Join us for this inspiring conversation about how agricultural innovation is fueling economic transformation across the continent and discover how businesses like Thanthwe Enterprise are cultivating not just crops, but a sustainable future for Africa.

In conversation with Ngabaghila Chatata of Thanthwe Farms

William Darko of Mushroom for Africa International is a true embodiment of dedication and multifaceted excellence. As a mushroom farmer and entrepreneur, he has pioneered sustainable agriculture, turning a simple idea into a thriving business that nourishes and inspires his community. His consulting work showcases his profound knowledge and innovative spirit, guiding others to achieve their own dreams and potentials. As a missionary, William brings hope and compassion to every corner he touches, spreading faith and love through his actions. His life’s journey is a powerful testament to the impact one individual can have through perseverance, ingenuity, and an unwavering commitment to serving others.

The launch of the Second 10-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063, also dubbed as the decade of acceleration (2024-2033), is a historic milestone for the African Union, its Member States, and all African citizens. It marks the beginning of the second decade of a collective effort to realise the vision of a prosperous, peaceful, and integrated Africa by 2063. The Second 10-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063 is a bold and ambitious roadmap for Africa's transformation. It is a manifestation of the collective will and determination of the African people to shape their destinity. It is a reaffirmation of the African dream of unity, dignity, and prosperity for all.

The plan outlines seven moonshots of how the continent aims to achieve key priorities, goals and targets to achieve in the next 10 years. By 2033, Africa wants to be prosperous, integrated, democratic, peaceful, cultured, people-driven and influential.

The AUDA-NEPAD, together with the FAO and AU-IBAR, co-organised a capacity-building workshop for women’s groups, associations, and cooperatives in African small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. The workshop was hosted by the Tanzanian Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MLF) and was held in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania (URT), from 5–7 December 2023. A total of 63 representatives from women’s groups, associations, and cooperatives from 24 countries gathered together, under the flagship of both AU and FAO fisheries programmes and projects including the AU’s FishGov2 project, and the FAO’s Coastal Fisheries Initiative (CFI) and Fish4ACP project. 

The 3-day event served as a useful platform to enhance the organizational and development capacities of women’s groups, associations, and cooperatives involved in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture across Africa, and offered an opportunity to strengthen connections between the groups and to share experiences among women fish processors and traders across the continent. Training sessions covered a range of relevant topics including gender and female leadership, governance of cooperatives, business planning and accounting, entrepreneurship, investment planning and negotiations, management of credit savings groups and innovative and strengthening advocacy and awareness for the African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFishNet). Participants were also able to gain hands-on experience and exchanges through field visits organised to an entrepreneurial seaweed processing business, a fish landing site and a fish processing site close to Dar es Salaam. Expressing a strong appreciation for the knowledge gained from the workshop, participants made a strong call for continued training and capacity development efforts by the AU and development partners.