Mobilization of Finance

USAID ATP and E-ATP’s strategy to mobilize finance for   agribusinesses and intra-regional trade in its six value chains,
is to:

• Facilitate access to credit;
• Identify potential financial partners and introduce them to select value chain actors (with particular emphasis on women);
•  Provide training in accessing finance;
• Facilitate regional fund movement by investigating and working with different fund transfer systems; and
• Build up capacity of financial services providers to analyze and understand risks and benefits associated with lending within specific value chains.

Some examples of contributions made in these areas include:

• Helping a cereal cooperative apex organization in Côte d’Ivoire gain access to finance and negotiate an export deal with a buyer in Burkina Faso;
• Reviewing the business plan of a Côte d’Ivoire butchery that needed a loan to upgrade its facilities Providing information on securing payment arrangements at an onion/shallot workshop on export/import subcontracting;
• Providing technical assistance to a Burnikabè poultry entrepreneur to secure a 20 million FCFA loan to increase his annual production of broilers by 140% and production of eggs by 50%;
• Investigating several fund transfer systems that could help improve the transfer of money within the region, and supporting a pilot program linking INOVA Payments Systems, a private company that has developed an integrated platform for electronic payment, to Burkinabè traders exporting livestock to Ghana;
• Conducting a training course on access to finance for 118 selected value-chain actors, including 15 women particularly in the maize and millet/sorghum value chains from Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.