The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, joined forces with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Nairobi on 13th February 17, 2009 to unlock credit and financing for small-scale farmers and agribusinesses across sub-Saharan Africa. Low agricultural lending in Africa is one of the reasons hindering farmers’ ability to achieve their full potential, and escaping hunger and poverty.
The partners’ collaboration will help expand or scale up
“The challenges to growing Africa’s agribusiness are great. But so are the opportunities. IFC is committed to helping
-Providing credit guarantees to Africa-based financial institutions in order to leverage significant private sector financing for agriculture.
-Expanding AGRAs Agro-dealer Development Programme to recruit and train significantly more agro-dealers.
-Providing financing to the African Seed Investment Fund (ASIF), which provides reimbursable loans to small to medium African seed companies.
-Developing and funding a financing mechanism for fertiliser wholesale companies. Exploring the feasibility of establishing the West African Agribusiness Investment Fund (WAAIF) to provide long-term commercial risk capital to small and medium agribusinesses.
-Supporting, with financial assistance if viable, the African Fertiliser Procurement Facility.
-Developing, funding and implementing an advisory services programme to provide technical advice and support to farmers or businesses that will benefit from this initiative.