Volumes of agricultural exports out of Africa are expected to grow through the provision of a US$150-million facility by the African Development Bank (Af DB) to provide bridging finance for smallholder farmers.The facility, which will be managed by the ETC Group, will take the form of a trade and agri-finance package comprising a $75-million soft commodity finance facility to support the group’s pre- and post-shipment working capital requirements, with a particular focus on export-oriented activities.It includes a $75-million agriculture value-chain programme to increase agriculture production and productivity by providing improved agricultural inputs and agronomic advisory services to local farmers.ETC is a pan-African agriculture conglomerate with a footprint expanding across sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Europe, Middle East, and South East Asia.It has operations in 26 African countries, with business activities including agricultural inputs, cash-traded products such as pulses and rice, exchange-traded products, logistics, and retail consumer goods.Commenting on the loan, Af DB vice president, agriculture, human and social development, Dr Beth Dunford, said, “working with an African agro-champion like ETC was critical towards achieving the Bank’s developmental goal to support millions of smallholder farmers across the continent and contribute to increased agriculture production and food security in the process”.Solomon Quaynor, Af DB vice president for private sector, infrastructure and industrialisation, added that “the Bank’s investment into the ETC Group will go a long way in contributing to food import substitution by allowing the ETC to process and package agricultural products locally while increasing value-addition of export-oriented products”.The main beneficiaries will be smallholder farmers across 10 African countries, according to a joint statement.Earlier in the year, the Af DB launched a Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) initiative.“The value of the agribusiness sector is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030. Those of us working in the economic zones sector will work closely with the Af DB initiative on this huge opportunity,” said Ahmed Bennis, Secretary-General, Africa Economic Zones Organization at the launch.Dunford said “at the Af DB we believe that turnkey projects such as special agro-industrial processing zones are crucial to development.“They bring together the ecosystem in regional value chains and key commodities, bringing together production, post-harvest, logistics, and processing to feed Africa’s growing cities and export to the world in a sustainable, green, and affordable way”.
