The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has called for a stronger and more coordinated financing framework to accelerate the transformation of Africa’s food and agricultural systems.
The Executive Secretary of NADF, Mohammed Ibrahim, made the call during a Policy and State Capability Thematic Plenary at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) in Kigali, Rwanda.
The session, themed “Aligning Investment to Fast-Track CAADP Objectives,” focused on ways to mobilise and better coordinate funding to achieve the goals of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
Ibrahim said Africa’s agricultural sector requires a financing structure capable of bringing together public funds, private investment and concessional financing while ensuring that investments are directed towards national agricultural priorities.
He explained that the continent’s financing challenge goes beyond a shortage of money, pointing instead to the fragmentation of available resources and the absence of effective mechanisms for coordinating investments.
According to him, African countries need to move away from relying mainly on traditional funding approaches and adopt structured financing models that can attract significantly more private-sector investment.
Ibrahim said NADF was working to identify key national priorities, develop investment opportunities capable of attracting financing and use public and concessional funds to encourage additional private investment.
He stressed that government funding should be deployed in a way that attracts private capital rather than displacing it.
The NADF chief also identified the limited availability of commercially viable agricultural projects as one of the major obstacles to mobilising private-sector funding.
He called for stronger data collection and accountability mechanisms to ensure that investments in agriculture produce measurable improvements, particularly for smallholder farmers.
Ibrahim said decisions on agricultural investments should be based on reliable data and that the success of interventions should be judged by their impact on the ground rather than simply by the amount of money committed.
He identified improved agricultural yields, higher farmer profitability, stronger participation in value chains, greater resilience and improved livelihoods as some of the indicators that should be used to assess the success of agricultural investments.
He also advocated independent monitoring, evaluation and learning systems to determine which interventions are working, identify shortcomings and provide evidence for expanding successful programmes.
Meanwhile, Ana Loboguerrero, Director of Adaptive and Equitable Food Systems at the Gates Foundation, said philanthropic funding could play an important role in supporting innovative agricultural projects.
She explained that philanthropic capital could provide patient and higher-risk financing for new solutions before such projects become attractive to commercial investors.
According to her, this type of funding can help generate evidence, improve public-sector capacity and reduce investment risks, thereby making agricultural projects more appealing to commercial financiers.
The stakeholders maintained that better coordination of available resources, stronger accountability and innovative financing approaches would be critical to achieving sustainable transformation across Africa’s food systems.
