Good Evening! I am pleased to be here today as we celebrate innovations that can change lives.

The launch of the Pilot Roll-Out phase of the Feed the Future Kenya Innovation Engine Program demonstrates the creativity Kenyan entrepreneurs bring to the challenges of feeding a growing population on a changing planet.

The U.S. Government is a committed to partnering with Kenya in improving the agricultural sector. We support Kenya through President Obama’s global initiative, Feed the Future, which aims to reduce poverty and stunting by 20 percent through improved technologies in agriculture. The Feed the Future Kenya Innovation Engine activity accelerates private-sector investment by sharing investors’ risk in backing innovations that address food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty across Kenya.

Since 2012, agricultural innovations developed with the support of the Feed the Future Kenya Innovation Engine program benefited more than 57,000 rural households, leveraged $1.4 million worth of private investment, and established 23 public and private partnerships. A total of 832 private enterprises applied these new innovations toward building agriculture markets in Kenya.

Entrepreneurship is central to Kenya’s economic growth, and Kenya is a global pioneer in businesses improving the lives of millions. From world-leading commerce and banking technologies like M-PESA to veterinary smart apps like iCow that assist small-scale dairy farmers, Kenya will continue to tap the creativity and drive of its people – and in particular, its youth – to foster some of the world’s fastest growing companies. The next big idea to improve livelihoods and reduce poverty might be forming in the head of someone sitting in this room today.

The USAID Feed the Future Kenya Innovation Engine has increased smallholder sales revenues by nearly 60 percent and increased the growing area under improved technologies by 5,000 hectares. These enterprises have also created nearly 1,500 new jobs.

Let me share three examples of our innovators who have made this possible. Through Value Farm, the Kenya Innovation Engine facilitates farmers to engage in export-oriented horticulture production by consolidating land. iProcure supplies affordable, mobile-based software to small-scale agricultural retailers and smallholder farmers that improves access to farm inputs like seed and fertilizer. And dairy farmers across East Africa are also getting help to increase their productivity by improving the genetic pool of their dairy sector because of Innovation Engine’s assistance to the Indicus breeding technology to deliver a high-quality product.

We are here today to celebrate the stakeholders who have made these kinds of improvements possible. As these enterprises grow, financial institutions are ramping up their investments in them. We commend the support given by National and County Governments to our strategic partners at the project and enterprise levels, and salute everyone who makes these developments sustainable and profitable.

I also commend our strong partnership with all levels of the Government of Kenya. From the counties to the Ministries of Industry, Investment and Trade and Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, we value your collaboration and the opportunity to support your vision in furthering both agriculture and agribusiness as an engine of growth and critical livelihood for Kenyans.

Thank you.