Dear Sir/Madam,
Q1. Partly yes and partly No. When I say partly yes, it would be good if the government commits to promote the involvement of migrants or returnees in the investment of agri-business where there is strong base of functionality developed agricultural value chains. My argument for partly No is I believe to make investment in any business or agribusiness worthwhile, it needs to invest more on the potential investors’ mindset/entrepreneurial skills. But from my crude observation in Ethiopia indicates that more migrants or returnees prefer to invest on services sector which is usually assumed agri-business return on investment is too long.
Q2. In my observation, matching grant program has both strong and weak points. The strong point is mainly attached to that it enables to access finance, skill and experience sharing/knowledge transfer. Whereas the weak point is that it has bureaucratic and/or long procedures, delay of release of apportioned budget for its purpose.
Q3. Agricultural machinery/tools matching grant. This has a great motivation to attract migrants or returnees for such investment.
Q4. I recalled there was World Bank funded matching grant program in Ethiopia 10 years ago to support export oriented business companies particularly involved in textile sub-sector.
Regards,
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Shirega Minuye
M. Shirega Minuye