AfDB approves $150m to support agriculture in Africa

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a $150 million facility for ETC Group Limited to address the company’s working capital needs and to develop its agriculture value chain, which will benefit smallholder farmers.

The AfDB stated that the investment would take the form of a trade and agri-finance package, including a $75 million soft commodity finance facility to support the group’s pre and post-shipment working capital needs, with a particular emphasis on export-oriented activities.

This was contained in a statement that read that the facility includes a $75m agriculture value-chain programme to increase agriculture production and productivity, by providing improved agricultural inputs and agronomic advisory services to local farmers.

According to it, the ultimate beneficiaries of the intervention, would include smallholder farmers, a significant number being women and youth entrepreneurs across 10 African countries, whose productivity is expected to increase from the deployment of high-quality agricultural inputs.

The facility includes a $75 million agriculture value-chain program to increase agriculture production and productivity by providing improved agricultural inputs and agronomic advisory services to local farmers, according to a statement.

According to it, the ultimate beneficiaries of the intervention would be smallholder farmers, with a significant number of them being women and young entrepreneurs from ten African countries, whose productivity is expected to increase as high-quality agricultural inputs are deployed.

The bank’s investment in ETC Group, according to Solomon Quaynor, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialisation, will go a long way toward contributing to food import substitution by allowing ETC to process and package agricultural products locally while increasing value-addition of export-oriented products.

“The introduction of COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in agricultural value chains worldwide,” said Leila Mokadem, Director-General of the bank’s Southern Africa region.

“The proposed facility would be a critical enabler in supporting ETC’s build-back strategy on the African continent, particularly in LICs and transition states.”