Aceli Africa

Aceli Africa's target is to unlock $1.6b in private sector lending for inclusive agricultural smes in east Africa through year-end 2030. With access to lending, agricultural smes can drive improvements in the productivity and market access of smallholders, while creating jobs across the value chain. In the first three years of operations (sept 2020-december 2023), Aceli registered 1,630 loans totaling $157m with 36 lenders across kenya rwanda, tanzania, and uganda. The enterprises receiving these loans create market access for 870k smallholder farmers and employ 29k full-time workers.of these loans, 61% are to new borrowers (defined as not having received a loan of $25k+ from any lender in the prior three years), 57% qualify for the gender inclusion impact bonus, 68% qualify for the food security impact bonus, and 17% qualify for the climate smart and resilient agriculture impact bonus. As of december 2023, 37 lenders had signed legal agreements with Aceli and an additional 10 were in negotiations or in the process of signing. Of the 37 accredited lenders, three-quarters are commercial banks or non-bank financial institutions domiciled in east Africa. Aceli Africa's target is to increase addressable demand by providing technical assistance to over 1000 agricultural smes through year-end 2030 to improve their capacity to access and manage finance. Aceli offers a technical assistance program for early-stage agricultural smes with annual revenues of $50k-500k, limited access to finance, and basic needs in business and financial management. Our partner, Africa management institute (ami) implements the virtual technical assistance program - a series of seven webinars and collaboration in a peer-learning network - paired with 10 hours of individualized coaching by wylde international for the leadership team from each agri-sme. The selected smes are located across all four focus countries. Overall, participating smes provide positive feedback from the program. We have also developed and launched our ta offering for growth and late-stage agricultural smes that have outgrown the basic needs of early-stage smes but still struggle to qualify for and/or manage financing (annual revenues of $500k-$5m). Our offering is targeted to address specific barriers, including internal operations, data management, and managerial capacity. Technoserve has been chosen as the service provider for growth-stage sme cohorts. In light of the divergent and specific needs of late-stage smes, we have contracted seven providers across Aceli's four focus countries to offer customized to ta to late-stage smes. Interested smes undergo a diagnostic and are offered a voucher that covers a portion of the cost of ta.

Csaf convenes an alliance of lending institutions to build an inclusive and sustainable financial market for small- and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in the agriculture sector. Members share learning, develop industry standards, and engage other stakeholders to facilitate market growth, promote responsible lending practices, and strengthen the sme ecosystem.

Aceli americas facilitates learning exchange through an advisory partnership with a mexican non-profit organization to design a local incentive facility. Aceli provides strategic support to inform coa's set-up and design and gathers learning to inform future Aceli advisory.