Sir Ian Wood has handed over ownership of Rwanda's largest tea factory to 5,000 farmers.
The Aberdeen-based entrepreneur signed over the Mulindi Tea Factory, in Gicumbi, to two smallholder tea co-operatives in a ceremony attended by Edouard Ngirente, the prime minister of Rwanda.
It is the first factory to be owned 100% by smallholder farmers in the country.
The Wood Foundation - Sir Ian Wood's charitable trust - and Gatsby Africa, run by Lord David Sainsbury, acquired a majority of shares in the plantation through an investment vehicle, East Africa Tea Investments, when it was privatised in 2012.
Since then, the foundation has invested in modernising the factory and upskilling farmers, while also providing corporate governance support.
Sir Ian, executive chairman of the Wood Foundation, said: "It's been a matter of great pride and satisfaction for Lord Sainsbury and I to work with the tea farmers at Mulindi.
"It was difficult to begin with, but with the investments and significant training programmes the farmers' performance and their income have greatly improved. We are very pleased to be handing over a well-established successful company and will continue to provide some support for an interim period."
The Wood Foundation was established by Sir Ian Wood KT GBE and his immediate family in 2007 to address economic and societal inequity.
In the UK, its efforts focus on developing young people in Scotland through education programmes, investing in efforts to tackle child poverty, and stimulating economic renaissance through the country’s only private sector-led development body.
In Africa, its venture philanthropy model is empowering 80,000 smallholder farmers in tea and other agricultural sectors in a model of transformational change. There is significant investment, alongside likeminded partners, to develop sustainable, successful industries which benefit farming communities in the long-term through capacity-development, finance, and access to premium markets.