Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment report

The SAFIN Annual Progress Report 2023 captures the network's achievements in building regional partnerships within the agricultural finance ecosystem, sharing new market intelligence and advocating for small businesses and farmers.

The Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN) is hosted at the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
On the theme of access to finance for farmers’ organizations, network members focused on improving the capacity of these organizations to attract and manage funding from local financial service providers (FSPs). Several innovative solutions were developed during 2023 to provide a range of services to producer organizations, including a needs assessment to improve their bankability profile, tailored business development services (BDS) and linkages to dedicated funding sources.

Digital innovation continued to feature prominently as a key area of research, discussion and investment in 2023. Particular attention was paid to the growth of digital solutions that combine financial and non-financial services, and their capacity to achieve commercial viability and scale. This raised fundamental questions about the lack of funding being directed to such solutions and the specific type of finance needed at different stages of development, including various modalities of debt, equity and concessional capital.

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