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Africa Agriculture
Accelerator Program

International Finance Corporation

Africa Agriculture
Accelerator Program

International Finance Corporation

A combined financing and advisory services program to orchestrate the transition of Africa’s agriculture toward a more productive, competitive, and sustainable system, and achieve food security. A key feature of the program will be to leverage new technologies (and data), as well as blended finance to de-risk and reduce cost of servicing, and manage risks. The program will aim to finance up to US$1 billion, and reach up to 1 000 000 hectares over the next 3 years. The program is ultimately expected to free-up public resources that can be redeployed in other social sectors.

Project Details

The program will take an ecosystem approach and bring together farmers and cooperatives, tech-enabled agronomic services providers (including agent networks), input providers, off-takers, insurers, and lenders to de-risk and bring the cost of servicing agriculture to a level where it can be financed commercially. The financing component of the program will be structured as blended-finance supported risk-sharing and liquidity facilities to support the financing of working capital and capex in selected agricultural value-chains across Africa. The Upstream/Advisory services component will be structured to support players across the value-chain as needed. One important feature of the advisory services will be to build the network of agents needed close to farming communities for proximity and efficient servicing.

Current Status/Next Steps

In early 2023, IFC started a pilot project in Senegal, in partnership with a local agTech company and a regional bank, and intends to leverage the results of the pilot to scale-up the program. In parallel, IFC is also building the network of agTech companies, financial institutions, and crop aggregators needed to accelerate the scale-up.

Support Rationale

The world is witnessing a rapidly-deteriorating global food security situation, with Africa being the most affected region. The number of people in need of food assistance in Africa increased from 14.4 million in 2020 to 23.7 million in 2021. Meanwhile, Africa imports ~US$35 billion food p.a. There is potential to foster more local production. Supporting farmers shall come with a “hands-on” model, and an integrated solution combining: (a) affordable and timely financing; (b) on-the-ground technical assistance; and (c) appropriate technology (regenerative and sustainable agronomy, as well as agTech). The challenge is broad, and various development partners could bring different resources and expertise.

Support/Partnership Required

There will be various tranches in which the partners can participate. There will be a senior tranche, a junior tranche, and a donor support component (e.g. technical assistance funding, performance-based incentives linked to KPIs – for example on gender, climate, and youth employment, etc.). Macro-level policy support and strategic public goods creation will also be important.