US, Sweden create $25m fund to spur private agric investment

13 May 2013. The governments of Sweden and the United States of America have announced the creation of a $25 million African agriculture fund for the six-member New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative.

The countries part of the Alliance are Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

To be managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the $25 million fund known as the Agriculture Fast Track, will spur greater private investment in agriculture infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

The fund was jointly announced May 9, 2013 by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the AfDB and the Swedish government during the Grow Africa’s Investment Forum in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Agriculture Fast Track was developed with the support of USAID, which has committed $15 million and the Government of Sweden, which pledged $10 million.

The fund is expected to strengthen the links from farmers to markets to tables.

In a joint statement, the three said “Supporting up to $1.5 million per project, the Agriculture Fast Track will finance upstream work of project design, including feasibility studies, market analyses, site surveys, business plans, financial modeling and other activities necessary to ensure project quality and bankability.”