The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the Canadian government have jointly created a special fund for assisting agriculture SMEs in Africa. While AfDB hosts the fund, Canada has contributed US$73.5 million (CAD 100 million) to fund the mechanism. Known as the Agri-food SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism, this new fund will strive to de-risk and catalyze investments for SMEs in Africa’s agriculture sector, thereby improving food security by strengthening agricultural value chains across the continent. Africa’s agriculture SMEs currently face a financing gap of more than US$180 million annually though they produce, process, or transport around 65% of Africa’s food.
