| Approval Date | 08 Nov 2022 |
| Planned Completion Date | 01 Jun 2027 |
| Last Disbursement Planned Date | 01 Jun 2027 |
| Sovereign / Non-Sovereign | Sovereign |
| Sector | Agriculture and Rural Development |
| DAC Sector Code | 31110 |
| Commitment | U.A 5,000,000 |
| Status | Approved |
Access to finance is one of the most important challenges hampering the progress of agricultural development in the Gambia. Most of the population in the agricultural sector can only access to the informal financing, which probes not to be sustainable, and much less capable of addressing all the needs of agribusinesses .So far, the technical and financial partners’ interventions to enhance access to finance remained mainly in the form of matching grant, which isa one-off grant, and therefore not a sustainable source of financing.8.The rationale for the Bank’s involvement in the proposed project rests on its alignment with the current top priority areas of intervention of both the Bank and The Gambia, as outlined above. The GAMIRSAL Establishment Project would address a number of market failures, including: i) difficulties for actors along the agriculture value chains to access suitable financial services and products, due to lack of satisfactory collaterals and risk mitigating instruments as well as prohibitive borrowing cost; ii) reluctance of FIs to finance agriculture despite their high liquidity, due to their lack of knowledge of the agricultural sector, the agriculture perceived and inherent risks including climate risks and the lack of agriculture tailor-made financial products; iii) limited capacity of actors along agriculture value chains to develop bankable business plans and efficiently manage credit and climate change risk. Also, the project fits well into the new policy paradigm for agricultural development promoted by the Bank and the Government, which aims at transforming agriculture, through the Gambia Agriculture Transformation Program.
The project development objective is to increase access to lending from Financial Institutions (FIs) to actors in agricultural value chains. The project specific objectives are : i) increase access of FIs to risk mitigating instruments to crowd in investments in the agricultural sector; ii) improve FIs' knowledge of the agricultural sector and skills in analysing, financing, and managing agricultural project portfolios, including climate risk mainstreaming in investment portfolio; and iii) improve skills of agriculture value chains' actors in business governance (enterprise governance structure, board structuring and oversight, ownership structure, etc.), financial and credit risk management, climate risk management, as well as reporting. The achievement of these objectives will enable project end beneficiaries gain access to fit-for-purpose financing to increase productivity, generate greater added value and build resilience to climate change. At the national level, this will facilitate agricultural growth, increased exports, greater value addition, as well as improved food and nutrition security.
The project will intervene in all regions of the country, although concentration is expected to be in the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) where most of the commercial banks are currently located. The project is expected to benefit 5,000 direct beneficiaries and 20,000 indirect beneficiaries(50 per cent women and youth).Intermediary beneficiaries consist of commercial banks and microfinance institutions(MFIs), training centres and consultancy firms. All legally registered and authorized commercial banks and MFIs can benefit from the incentives provided by the project’s de-risking tools and technical support to increase their financing to the agricultural sector.
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Implementing
Central Bank of Gambia
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Funding
African Development Fund
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| IATI identifier | 46002-P-GM-A00-007 |
| Last Update | 22 Mar 2023 |
| Name | Ibro MANOMI |
| i.manomi@afdb.org |