AgCelerant, the agricultural technology (agritech) service of Mauritius-based Manobi Africa, recently partnered with the Senegalese unit of the Bank of Africa Group and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) on an effort to boost the rice industry in Senegal. IFC has committed the local-currency equivalent of USD 7.2 million as a partial guarantee to expand Bank of Africa’s lending to small-scale rice farmers and other actors in the rice value chain with the goal of providing greater access to insurance, equipment, fertilizer and seeds. IFC also will provide advisory services to AgCelerant to support the agritech in assisting Bank of Africa borrowers with training as well as technology such as production tracking tools.
The goal of AgCelerant is to help farms and related businesses align themselves “into organized, transparent, efficient and inclusive value chains.” Manobi is active in the farming and potable water sectors in 14 countries in Africa and is in the process of expanding to Europe.
Bank of Africa Group was established in 1988 and is headquartered in Morocco. As of 2022 it reports total assets of EUR 9.4 billion (USD 10.2 billion), customer deposits of EUR 7 billion (USD 7.5 billion), a loan portfolio of EUR 4.5 billion (USD 4.8 billion) with 6,500 employees operating 549 branches in 19 African countries.
Founded in 1956, IFC offers loans, equity investments, advisory services and technical assistance to private companies with the intent of alleviating poverty and promoting open and competitive markets in low- and middle-income countries. During the 12 month period ending June 2022, the organization disbursed investments totaling USD 33 billion.
By Vaughn Rajah, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
IFC press release
https://pressroom.ifc.org/all/pages/PressDetail.aspx?ID=27442
AgCelerant homepage
https://www.agcelerant.com
Bank of Africa homepage
https://bank-of-africa.net
Bank of Africa-Senegal homepage
https://www.boasenegal.com
IFC homepage
www.ifc.org
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