As the CEO of Rabobank Africa, I encounter entrepreneurs daily; after watching Eric speak at the AGCO Africa Summit I was instantly drawn to his story and passion, and have since become both an investor and Board Member with his company, KadAfrica. Eric is easily one of the most promising entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. It’s clear to me that he is positioned to positively impact the lives of tens of thousands of currently marginalized East Africans. I understand that WEF’s Young Global Leaders program is meant to recognize young individual who dramatically affect the lives of future generations and craft innovative responses to address global and regional challenges. I can wholeheartedly say without any hesitation, from all of my interactions with and observations of Eric, that he is, to the bone, the young leader you are looking for.

Eric has continually worked to change the widely held belief that farming is a recipe for poverty, and that it can be a viable commercial enterprise. With his entrepreneurial spirit Eric set up his own farm in Western Uganda, and in the process learned the hardships faced by smallholder farmers. Wanting to expand his agribusiness, he decided to enable others to participate in the agriculture sector and founded his company, KadAfrica; his bold ideas eventually led to a public-private partnership with the world’s largest private landowner—the Catholic Church. Eric has capitalized upon this relationship to engage an often-overlooked group in agriculture programming—girls, who because they are typically landless are not classified as smallholder farmers. By engaging young women in agribusiness, KadAfrica seeks to end the poverty trap of subsistence farming and provide a concrete solution to endemic unemployment in the countryside—by building a vertically integrated, girl-powered passion fruit value chain.