Building partnerships with African SMEs

“Building partnerships is not a linear process. It is a lot of going back and forth, really understanding the local context,” explained Gert Jan Becx (TRAIDE) at the 2025 NFP World Food Day in The Hague. This particularly applies to partnerships with African small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The experiences of Dutch SMEs that are active in Africa show that interesting business opportunities can be co-created in African “pre-competitive markets”. The lessons learnt and insights for future collaborative action were discussed in a WFD side-event cohosted by foodFIRST, TRAIDE and Netherlands Food Partnership.

African SMEs have a key role to play, according to the African Union’s new plan for transforming agri-food systems and improving local food security, known as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP, phase 2026-2035). This African-led agenda sets several ambitious targets (e.g. raising the share of locally processed food to 35% of agrifood GDP), which cannot be reached without SMEs, given their central role in agrifood production, processing and trade. foodFIRST identifies a need for policy interventions that explicitly target SMEs, many of which remain excluded from donor portfolios due to perceptions that they are not bankable.

As partners of African SMEs, Dutch SMEs can add important value too. With a strong reputation for innovation, technology, and practical problem-solving, many Dutch SMEs are well positioned and interested to contribute their part to the transformation of African agri-food systems. Their agility, pragmatism, and hands-on approach align well with the realities of rapidly changing African markets. However, Dutch SME engagement in Africa remains limited. The challenge, therefore, is to understand what holds them back and how to foster greater collaboration.

The WFD side event provided a space to explore this further. The work of TRAIDE foundation served as a starting point for the conversation. It fosters localized support structures that connect Dutch and African partners through concrete, demand-driven business cases; for example in a clean cooking ecosystem and in improved avocado sourcing. The conversation with practitioners from two Dutch SMEs acknowledged the importance of building an iterative process with local (trade) partners to understand the local realities well; and in which the business cases are adapted to the local context, and the appropriate partners are approached. Taking time, being adaptive and agile, and investing in capacity strengthening are critical components of successful collaboration as well.

The conversation resonated well with the participants in the audience, who confirmed the relevance of capacity strengthening and called for collaboration with African SMEs producing and selling nutritious food products. It also resonated well with policy developments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (particularly DDE), which currently include plans to further facilitate the programmatic connections with African SMEs, particularly in nine countries with “pre-competitive markets”.

Read the full report here

Further reading on the CAADP Kampala Declaration (2026-2035)

Find the report of the earlier foodFIRST dialogue meeting on the implementation of the CAADP Kampala Declaration

Interested in further policy dialogues about potential joint action in African countries ? Please contact the NFP team, see contacts below.