EU claims Enterprise Zambia Challenge Fund created 3,000 jobs, paid €40M to small-scale farmers

The European Union (EU) has claimed that through its Enterprise Zambia Challenge Fund, more than 3,000 jobs had been created and over €40 million paid directly to small-scale farmers for their produce. EU Ambassador to Zambia Karolina Stasiak said the program had been one of the EU’s flagship initiatives to strengthen agricultural value chains and expand rural incomes across Zambia. Speaking at the Impact Capital Africa Summit Invest Fest held at Ciela Resort in Chongwe on Wednesday, Stasiak said the fund’s results reflect a deliberate shift toward market-driven support for small and medium enterprises in the agriculture sector.

She added that the EU’s approach combined financing, technical training, and access to new supply chains to build long-term resilience. “We partnered with Zambian SMEs in agriculture, aquaculture and agribusiness. The partnerships were designed to help local companies scale production and meet demand from both domestic and regional markets,” Stasiak said.

She stated that through the fund, farmers received training in modern practices and were linked to buyers who could offer stable contracts. “With this support, hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers were trained in climate-smart agriculture, entered into new supply contracts, and gained better access to financial services,” she said. Stasiak said the blending of public and private resources changed how financial institutions viewed smallholders.

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She said the blending of private and public resources made farmers not ‘too risky’ clients, but an investment success story and that the model was now being extended to infrastructure and trade corridors. “In a strong Team Europe effort, we continue, along with Germany, this effort to support smallholder farmers to gain market access,” Stasiak said. She said the EU was also prioritizing value chains connected to the Lobito Corridor to improve regional competitiveness. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.

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