Beginning to Move the Needle in Agriculture: Driving Growth Through Asset Finance in East Africa

Enhancing access to productive assets like agricultural tools, water, and energy equipment can boost productivity and income for smallholder farmers and micro-enterprises. By modernizing and improving farming practices using assets such as greenhouses, drip irrigation systems, agro-processing equipment, livestock, and transportation, farmers can not only diversify their sources of income but also build resilience against unforeseen challenges.

In 2023, we achieved a major milestone with the Microleasing Fund by disbursing capital in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. With these investments several hundred farmers were able to obtain Microleases for different productive assets. This article shares the transformative journey of the Microleasing Fund, highlighting its initial impact on farmers, the diversity of the assets acquired and its commitment to gender inclusivity.

While transport took center stage in the use of this first round of disbursements, farmers acquired other critical assets, such as land leases, livestock, and power tillers. We are keen to promote further diversification of assets with our next investments and will support this with capacity building activities going forward. The increasing availability of capital will incentivize both supply and demand of climate and energy smart assets making them more accessible to farmers in the rural areas.

Our lessons from the first impact monitoring data that our SACCOs and MFIs have provided are:

• that as with all rural communities the world over, farmers tend to be conservative and that women, who are heavily involved in farming activities, do not always have the decision-making influence that mirrors their level of involvement, and
• information and knowledge of climate and energy smart assets is not as readily available in rural communities as in urban centers.

In collaboration with our partner SACCOs and MFIs, we will emphasize the empowerment of women by encouraging their participation in awareness and capacity building activities. Similarly, the importance and urgency of climate and energy smart assets will be further accentuated.

The journey has just begun, and the vision extends towards a future where sustainable agriculture, clean energy use, climate smart assets and the economic empowerment of women thrive hand in hand.

We look forward to sharing information on new partnerships and their impact shortly.