The Agriculture Fast Track Fund (AFT), hosted by the African Development Bank, has announced US$ 3,390,000 funding for 17 new small and medium enterprises in the agriculture sector as part of its transformative support for food security, income enhancement, job creation, and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa.
The funding, provided by the African Development Bank and partners, was announced in Accra, Ghana in support of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agribusiness sector in eight African countries – Ghana, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Senegal.
AFT Coordinator Jonas Chianu said the Fund provided grants that enabled SMEs to conduct project preparation studies to eliminate barriers to take-off, thereby developing a pipeline of bankable projects.
The Fund finances the project development cost of a broad range of agriculture infrastructure, spanning the entire value chain − from production to the market. Target projects range from rural feeder roads to irrigation, agro-processing and marketing facilities, and out-grower schemes.
Yero Baldeh, the African Development Bank’s country manager for Ghana, noted that the development of agriculture and agribusiness lies at the heart of the Bank’s priorities in Africa.
“Over the past five years, the Fund has successfully supported some private sector-managed SMEs that have grown to be impactful in promoting food security, income advancement and job creation for smallholders, including women and the youth, in different regions of Ghana.”
The AFT Fund is managed by the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department of the African Development Bank and supports the development of a strong pipeline of bankable agriculture infrastructure projects and assists African agribusiness SMEs in project preparation activities to ease their take-off. The Fund is supported by the governments of the USA (through USAID), Denmark (through DANIDA) and Sweden (through Sida).
Original source: AfDB
Published on 24 April 2019
