ZADT CAUSEWAY 2023-2026

Result 1: Capacity of women-led growth-oriented agribusinesses to access financial services strengthened. Women capacity to access finance was strengthened and partner managed to surpass the yearly target for capacity training in financial literacy and actual access to finance (value). The CAUSEWAY Project trained 3,848 women aged 3665 in business plan development and financial literacy, reaching 77% of its three-year target. The project is reaching and equipping women with the foundational skills such as financial literacy and business proposal writing so that they can engage with formal economic systems. A total of 368 women Agro-entrepreneurs secured USD332,887 in loans from inception to 31 December 2024 mostly drawing from the revolving fund facility provided by FCDO. The fund has been used to build trust with financial institutions and catalyze further private sector engagement. Further into the implementation the financial institutions are expected to use own funds to lend to these businesses which ZADT builds business capacity and US$1,125,000 is expected to be catalyzed. Currently, ZADT has not yet provided statistics of value of funds extended to business by financial institutions using own funds and data of those ones who are repeat borrowers to demonstrate the catalytic nature of the program. Furthermore, ZADT managed to foster a support ecosystem allowing more women to access tailored mentorship, business proposal writing support through peer support and community engagement increasing the quality of proposal submitted and funded. Result 2: Capacity of youth-led start-ups and growth-oriented agribusinesses to access financial services enhanced. The CAUSEWAY Project has strengthened its collaboration with development partners, private sectors, and value chain stakeholders to provide targeted youth entrepreneurs with training, mentoring, and technical support in business proposal writing. The CAUSEWAY Project has trained 3,138 youth in financial literacy and business development, reaching 52% of its three-year target of 6000. Furthermore, only 268 businesses managed to access finance. This highlighted a key gap in translating training into investment-ready opportunities. Thus, ZADT will need to find other constraints hindering access to finance from both businesses and financial institution perspective. Despite this challenge, US$196,175 in loans were disbursed to youth entrepreneurs in 2024 (being 79% of the annual target of USD250,000.00). To bridge the gap in developing fundable proposal pipeline, CAUSEWAY project increased their engagements with private sector and peer learning and 408 additional youth gained exposure to financial literacy and business development knowledge through peer learning and success stories shared by funded entrepreneurs. Result 3: Business Incubation and mentorship for youth pursuing tertiary agricultural education strengthened. ZADT has been able to engage 7 tertiary institutions including universities and colleges under the key result area on strengthening business incubation and mentorship for youth pursuing tertiary agricultural education. They are on course to empower young agricultural entrepreneurs to overcome the challenges of starting and growing a business. The institutions engaged were able to support the students with assets, business mentorship and in pitching the business ideas. As a result, two-thirds of the three-year target of institutions were engaged and selected by the end of 2024. A total of 58 projects were supported which included group and individual projects. This translated to 138 students against a target of 100 for year 1. Furthermore, nearly half of the anticipated disbursements which is US70,766 were made with an average of US475 per student for working capital and capex, indicating a significant step towards successful financial support for student initiatives. This is expected to lay§ a foundation for the scalability and sustainability of youth-led agribusiness ventures. Field visit conducted in May and June 2025 to Masvingo's Great Zimbabwe University and University of Zimbabwe students showed that students are learning and applying business concepts and testing various business ideas including teamwork, governance and business planning as well as applying in class skills to their businesses. Result 4: Banks and micro-finance institutions knowledge and capacity to provide financial services to youth and women-led start-ups and growth-oriented agri-businesses improved. ZADT made progress in engaging financial institutions and working with them to develop tailor made financial packages for the women and youth businesses. ZADT managed to sign MOUs with 13 institutions including banks and micro finance institutions. The peer assist and peer review sessions were vital in clarifying loan terms and conditions with the financial institutions. ZADT had dialogue meeting with institutions clarifying loan terms and conditions, credit risk and negotiating interest rates and loan tenures to suit production cycles of the value chains targeted. A total of US$498,527 was disbursed through a revolving fund to 871 beneficiaries. This has been made possible with revolving fund injection from FCDO. ZADT was instrumental in negotiating the loan terms to suit value chains being funded increasing repayments from 6 to 12 months. ZADT also further negotiated for affordable interest rates which have been reduced from 18 to 12% per annum for banks and 3% per month for micro finance institutions. Effective partnerships were established and strengthened with financial institutions such as AFC Bank and Virl microfinance to facilitate access to finance for target beneficiaries, ultimately adapting models and systems to serve rural and peri-urban women and youth entrepreneurs. Going forward ZADT need to report on value of loans using financial institutions own finance to see the catalytic role of this technical assistance. Financial Report The financial report is prepared using historic cost accounting and main income is the grant income which is accounted for on cash basis when received. The report was submitted on time 31 March 2025 and signed by the relevant signatories. It showed cumulative expenditures and incomes allowing for comparisons in the partner operational currency and approved budget. It covered period from inception which is 1 June 2023 to 31 December 2024. It however lacked disclosure of income from other sources and explanatory notes for variances in expenditures which the partner was asked to revise and a signed report was submitted on 4 June 2025. Partner receives other income from FCDO for revolving fund and administration costs. The cash balance statement showed that ZADT received two disbursements to the total of SEK17,500,000 which translated to US$1,659,403 and an expenditure of US$1,135,924 was incurred. The exchange rates were disclosed in the accounting policy 3 of the financial report. They had a cash balance of US$523,049 because they had received last disbursement for 2024 in September and they close for vacation in December. Reconciliations done showed they had uncleared advances for rental deposits of $430 paid to field offices which will be reimbursed when ZADT terminates the leases. They had an exchange loss of US$90,597. They had burn rate of 82% indicating acceleration of activities following a slow start during inception period. This is considered good, and activities not completed were rolled over into 2025 following a revised budget and work plan. Audit The audit was carried out in accordance with international audit standards (ISA) issued by IAASB applying ISA 800/ISA 805. In addition, an assignment according to International Standards on Related Services (ISRS) 4400 (Revised) also called agreed upon procedure was carried out. The audit and the additional assignment were carried out by an external, independent and qualified auditor who is Nolands Chartered accountants. The audit period is from 1 June 2023 to 31 December 2024. Nolands additionally submitted a review report of the internal control review conducted by Baker Tilly in April of 2023. The ISRS 4400 report showed that ZADT financial reporting is compliant with their accounting policies, and Sida's agreement on financial reporting. Nolands reviewed implementation of internal control recommendations made by Baker Tilly in April 2024 and found that ZADT has made progress in implementations. Nolands audited ZADT applying ISA 800/ISA 805 and found that the expenditure verification report, in all material respects, gave a true and fair view of the projects receipts and payments for the period 1 June 2023 to 31 December 2024 and the position of the projects funds as at that date. Thus, ZADT received an unqualified audit opinion. Adaptive Management -During implementation, ZADT received £653,000 which is equivalent to US$887,469 additional funding from Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) in 2024 for administration and revolving fund which has been used to expand wholesale capital to financial institutions. This has been used as derisking mechanism and test ZADT concept. By end of December 2024, $498,527 had been disbursed in loans to 871 recipients. ZADT played a critical role in creating a pipeline, negotiating loans tenure to suit production cycles of businesses and interest rates with financial institutions and ensuring that recipients received mentoring in business management to increase viability of business and loan repayments. -The students are balancing learning and running businesses as business go over their learning attachment and this limits impact. The component could benefit if it is extended to students about to graduate and ready for business and given allowance to continue running their businesses with tertiary institutions mentoring as they transition to set up outside. -Partnerships are forming and the model is adapting including use of aggregator such as Zimbabwe Super Seeds to channel credit to small business and providing other essential services such as markets and agronomic services to those businesses which are not yet bankable. In other areas group guarantee with small business and market acting as guarantee for credit are evolving results which can have lasting impact and more sustainable such the Reapers and Old Mutual Microfinance model.

The overall objective of the CAUSEWAY Project is to improve access to finance for youth and women in peri-urban and rural areas of Zimbabwe to undertake and implement projects that improve and increase their household incomes and food security. The specific objective (or purpose) of the project is to provide financial literacy training and to facilitate increased access to appropriately structured finance to youth and women involved in agribusiness initiatives. The project aims to achieve four interconnected results, namely: - Capacity of women-led growth-oriented agribusinesses to access financial services strengthened. - Capacity of youth-led start-ups and growth-oriented agribusinesses to access financial services enhanced. - Business Incubation and mentorship for youth pursuing tertiary agricultural education strengthened. -Banks and micro-finance institutions knowledge and capacity to provide financial services to youth and women-led start-ups and growth-oriented agri-businesses improved.