Africa Now was established in April 1981 as a UK based NGO working to alleviate poverty in Africa. The organisation supports local initiative and enterprise, working with small-scale farmers and local entrepreneurs to increase efficiency, quality, and diversity of higher value products and processes. Most critically, Africa Now works to identify and develop markets for those products, and through its training programmes, helps producers meet the new export trade requirements represented by international codes and standards.
We have worked in a number of African countries over the past twenty-five years, and in 1983 we opened our first African office in Kisumu, western Kenya, where much of our current operations are still based. In the latter half of the 1990's Africa Now also opened offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Harare, Zimbabwe, to help consolidate our programmes in these countries, and is now opening an office in Lusaka to support its programme in Zambia.

Our projects concentrate on business development and income generation, but have been varied in their scope and focus. Work has ranged from helping farmers to construct and manage small-scale dairies, to training groups in spring protection and water tank construction, and subsequently assisting them in the development of clients and markets. We have also encouraged the use of appropriate technology for income generation, and have established businesses producing manual seed presses, which extract high-value oil from sunflower seeds. Additionally, we have managed a number of projects delivering microcredit and business development advice to disadvantaged and isolated communities.

Africa Now also works with international companies doing business in Africa, to encourage investment and trading practices which benefits small-scale producers. As part of this, we undertake ethical audits of factories and plantations to ensure that workers receive a fair wage, working conditions are improved and international trade becomes a process from which everyone can benefit.