On the 25th September, 2015, CURAD held its first ever CURAD Agribusiness Innovations Conference with the theme “Agribusiness Incubation the Key to Youth Job Creation”. This follows their innagural challenge in 2014 when it partnered with Challenge worldwide (CWW) to enhance the student internship and placement component in Universities.
The half day event had our main discussants as;
| i | Mr. Kimani Muturi (MD, ABP Incubator) | Agribusiness Incubation and Youth employment
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| Ii | Dr. Imelda Kashaija (Deputy director, NARO)
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Turning research Innovation into Agribusiness |
| Iii | Dr. Joshua Mutambi(Ag. Commissioner, Dpt of Industry and Technology-Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives | Value Addition and Agribusiness |
| Iv | Maria Kabegambire Ogwal (Certified professional Banker-Uganda Institute of Banking and Financial Services) | Challenge Inhibiting the transformation of sussistence Farming into thriving agri-business in rural Uganda |
| v | Carsten Nico Hjortso Associate Professor in Business Strategy and Development, University of Copenhagen, Denmark | Key Note speeker on Agribusiness Incubation to youth job creation |
Over 50 people attended the conference.
On the same day, CURAD held its 2nd Agribusiness Innovation challenge award gala. The function which started at 6:00pm was to award prizes to the winners who had participated in the agribusiness completion. The guest of honour was Dr. Sidronius Okasai, the director of crop resources, Ministry of Agriculture,Nine winners emerged out of the competitions and these were;
| Name | Company Name/Type of Business | Category | Position | Prizes won | |
| 1 | Musule James | Luguzi Coffee Nursery/Namayumba Coffee Farmers Association | Best Cofffee Farmers group | Overall Winner | · Twelve Million from Uganda Development Bank
· A smart Phone with fifty thousand worth of airtime per month for 1 year from Uganda Telecom/Msente · A plague · A certificate |
| 2 | Manige Merabu | Mushroom Value Addition | Best Youth Entrepreneur | First runner’s up | · Ten Million Five Hundred thousand from Msente
A smart Phone with fifty thousand worth of airtime per month for 1 year from Uganda Telecom/Msente · A plague · A certificate |
| 3 | Econi Carl Peter | Enkokotronic-a mobile phone operated digital egg incubator | Best New Processing Technology with ICT | 2nd runner’s up | · 5 Million as Incubation online pharmacy buy valium support from CURAD
· A smart Phone with fifty thousand worth of airtime per month for 1 year · A plague · A certificate |
| 4 | Joyce Kyalema | Josmak International adds value to Pumpkin to make over 6 products to include pumpkin wine, pumpkin juice, pumpkin leaves powder, pumpkin soap, pumpkin cinnamon tea spice, pumpkin ginger tea spice, pumpkin peanut butter | Best Woman Entrepreneur | Winner |
Each won;
· A smart Phone with fifty thousand worth of airtime per month for 1 year from Uganda Telecom/Msente · A certificate |
| 5 | Rebecca P. Tumwebaze | The poultry studio-IT artefacy system to enhance decision making among poultry farmers in their operations | Best Start up Using ICT | Winner | |
| 6 | Nsimadala Elizabeth | Nyabubare Area Cooperative Enterprise (ACE). Has over 2450 members from 25 rural producer organisations | Best Established Enterprise | Winner | |
| 7 | Winnie Kalyesubula | WinKal Group Ltd makes beverages, sherry, rum and health juices.
Plan to make make coffee rum and coffee sherry |
Best New Coffee Product | Winner | |
| 8 | Jeff Odong Jeff | Make coffee bags (just like tea bags) | Best New trade Idea | Winner | |
| 9 | Timothy Mwogeza | The portico Ltd-create energy from agricultural and forest products an waste | Best Start-up Enterprize | Winner |
The top three winners had the opportunity to travel to Nairobi Kenya to attend and participate in the African Incubator Network Conference in which James Musule won US $5,000. The Overall winner was given the opportunity to open up an account with Post Bank at no charges with an opening balance of 300,000/=. Both runners up were also given the same opportunity with a minimum balance of 200,000/= each.
We wish to thank our sponsors who supported CURAD to make this function a success. These include; Msente (Lead sponsor) Uganda Development Corporation, Post Bank Ltd, Uganda Investment Authority, USAID- Feed the Future, Pax Insurance, Agro Pro Focus, Capital FM, Monitor Publications, The Nutritionist, FinAfrica, and partners which include Uganda Agribusiness Alliance, and A4DE Ltd.
Thanks to CURAD for the support to Agribusiness based sector. No one could believe what you do until reality. I really appreciate everything you have done and believe everything you are yet to do. I confess your transparency in your opinions. Only blessings