NAIROBI, April 9 (Xinhua) — The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism, a special fund of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), on Tuesday launched a 2-million-U.S.-dollar credit guarantee scheme designed to boost the uptake of fertilizer among Kenyan smallholder farmers.
Nnenna Nwabufo, AfDB director-general for East Africa, said at a briefing in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, that the fertilizer financing for sustainable agriculture management project will provide a partial credit guarantee to Pan-African agri-fintech firm Apollo Agriculture, allowing it to extend credit for agricultural inputs to 100,000 smallholder farmers in two counties in western Kenya.
“The project has been designed in line with the bank’s Feed Africa Strategy as it will ensure the long-term engagement of the private sector in support of the financing of fertilizer to increase food production and consequently food security in Kenya,” Nwabufo said.
She said that the three-year program that targets maize farmers will guarantee against the risk of default by farmers who access agricultural inputs on credit.
Paul Ronoh, the principal secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, said the credit scheme is expected to play a role in improving the country’s agricultural productivity by raising the use of fertilizer from 8 kg per hectare to 50 kg.
Ronoh added that farmers are expected to pay back the credit upon the sale of their produce, hence maintaining the cycle and ensuring the approach is sustainable.
