Agricultural finance product development in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Ghana

• Oct 25, 2018
• 1 min

Cordaid Netherlands and MSC collaborated to provide technical assistance to seven MFIs in Africa. The collaboration developed agricultural finance products to improve access to financing among farming households. MSC worked with seven financial institutions and contributed to the design of seven credit products. The intervention helped the MFIs to disburse USD 3 million to smallholder farmers, ultimately reaching 1.3 million smallholder farmers.

MSC and Cordaid Netherlands won a USD 1-million grant from the EU Microfinance Program and the Secretariat of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP-EU) to work with banks and MFIs. MSC collaborated with Cordaid to provide technical assistance to seven MFIs in Africa. The collaboration developed agricultural finance products to improve access to financing among farming households. We helped the MFIs conduct market research, develop strategies, analyze value chains, develop credit products, and establish linkages to agricultural service providers.

MSC was tasked to design, develop, and pilot-test agriculture finance loans in four countries in Africa. We worked with seven financial institutions to understand the needs of farmers and the financing gaps, which resulted in the design of seven credit products.

MSC’s efforts facilitated a total of USD 3 million in commercial funding to about 500,000 smallholder farmers across coffee, sugar cane, maize, livestock, and dairy value chains. The intervention enabled the MFIs to disburse USD 3 million to smallholder farmers, ultimately reaching 1.3 million smallholder farmers. The overall ACP-EU program phase I had an impact on 52 of 79 ACP member countries and facilitated access to finance for more than 5.5 million financially under-served people.