Posted on January, 18, 2024 at 07:28 am
Kenya is preparing to hold a Conference on Financing Agriculture Sustainability, aimed at assessing the current financial landscape for the agricultural sector, including identifying bottlenecks.
Scheduled for March 27-28, 2024, the two-day agriculture financing conference will bring together stakeholders in the agricultural sector to explore suitable models for financing.
The Ministry of Agriculture is leading the initiative, collaborating with various local and international partners.
Principal Secretary Paul Rono, in his pre-conference address on Tuesday, expressed confidence that the discussion on agriculture financing is well-timed and will significantly contribute to the enhancement of the sector.
“Agriculture investment and funding is a conversation that is overdue and needs to take place to better position ourselves to transform our agricultural sector and define how best to bring on board all relevant actors,” he said.
As per the conference organizers, although agriculture stands as the largest contributor to GDP, loans and investment portfolios allocated to the sector are presently inadequately low when compared to its GDP share.
The Financial Access Household Survey of 2019 revealed that approximately 3.2 percent of Kenyans utilize formal borrowing for agricultural purposes.
PS Rono underscored that the conference’s discussions will produce meaningful results, with a primary focus on establishing a verified overview of the agricultural financing scenario in Kenya.
“Through these engagements, we expect to chart tangible investment and funding action plans that are alive to the current realities of the country and the 47 Counties,” he said.
During the conference, Rono will address the government’s agricultural priorities for advancement.
In the preliminary sessions, Principal Secretaries from Livestock, Cooperatives, and Blue Economy, along with their representatives, attended, affirming their dedication to assessing the extent of agricultural financing to guide the formulation of effective policies.
“We believe the timing of this conference is opportune, and we sincerely hope to achieve implementable outcomes,” stated Lucy Obungu from the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries.
Additional areas of focus for the conference encompass financing transformative government incentives and frameworks, mitigating investment risks in agriculture, digitization and research in agricultural technologies, involvement of the private sector, addressing the needs of SMEs and financial institutions, and taking a proactive stance in honoring commitments.
The Conference Programs Director, Kawira Mutegi, urged stakeholders to actively lead the financial discussions, aiming to extend the conversation to the broader African continent, using Kenya as a case study.
“Our leaders need to take the mantle because it is important for us to sustain this conversation,” she said.
The conference will provide a one-stop shop where small, medium, and large agricultural enterprises can interact with financing solution providers.
The discussions will include designing financing solutions to ensure relevance to the wide range of beneficiaries and de-risking approaches for injecting capital such as blended financing.
Source: Capital FM