The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US$100-million Soft Commodity Finance Facility (SCFF) to finance Kenyan agriculture supply chain firm, Export Trading Group’s (ETG), value chain operations in sub-Saharan Africa.
A statement released by the AfDB yesterday (Wednesday) stated that this finance facility would enable the bank to reach over 600 000 small-scale farmers indirectly through ETG.
“The bank is scaling up its interventions aimed at making Africa a net food exporter, self-sufficient in key commodities, and operate commercially viable agribusinesses,” said AfDB’s chief Trade Finance officer, Bleming Nekati.
The SCFF would provide the capital for ETG to process the soft commodities (eg, cashews) it has purchased from farmers prior to export and provide the funding to procure supplies for farmers in order to ensure the consistency and quality of the commodities.
Nekati added that ETG played a significant role in the promotion of agribusiness in countries where agriculture was on average the biggest employer and was one of the largest commodity aggregators in Africa.
