Grow rural agri-finance and cooperative savings groups

Grow rural agri-finance and cooperative savings groups

GIZ's country package Benin of the global programme GV AgFin (promotion of agri-finance for agri-based rural enterprises) strengthens both sides of the credit market. On the demand side it coaches farms and MSMEs in financial management and helps them meet banks and microfinance institutions through producer associations. On the supply side it helps partner MFIs design products for priority value chains: rice, shea, cashew, soya, poultry, and vegetables. Solidarity savings and credit groups (GSEC) encourage saving inside cooperatives and agribusiness clusters.

What you can do

• Join or form a GSEC-style savings group inside your cooperative so members practice bookkeeping before seeking loans
• Ask your producer association how group guarantees and adapted products (equipment, processing, nurseries) work with partner MFIs
• Study the published knowledge products on farm investment planning and share them with credit officers in your region
• Read the programme brief for regions covered (69 of 77 communes) and contact pathways via GIZ GV AgFin Benin (PDF)

How it works

Technical advice reaches farmers and MSMEs as well as nine partner MFIs and one bank. Adapted products include group loans for cooperatives, equipment and processing credit, and MSME loans for poultry, seed production, and cashew nurseries. Partner MFIs have disbursed more than 45 million EUR in credits to tens of thousands of farmers and hundreds of agri MSMEs in the target chains. Those loans are not backed by a GV AgFin credit line or guarantee fund.

Why it matters

Innovation stalls when growers are treated as too risky for banks. Finance that fits seasonal cash flows and cooperative guarantees lets rural builders invest in soil, processing, and decent work.

Source & repost

Shared here so you can get inspired or find action already happening near you. Solarpunker does not own or organise it.
Source: GIZ: GV AgFin Benin factsheet (PDF). Commissioned by BMZ; political partner MAEP Benin.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Shea nuts 1.jpg (CC BY-SA 4.0, Kanbongma).