The agricultural sector financier, the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), is set to receive KSh1.5 billion from the National Treasury, spanning across the next three financial years.

Treasury, while presenting its Programme-Based Budget to Parliament, said it will give the Corporation KSh500 million for 2020/21, KSh500 million for 2021/22, and KSh500 million for 2022/23.

AFC will use the funds to further its programs, including credit extension and technical assistance to clients covering agriculture, rural development, and food security.

Furthermore, as part of its Women Affirmative Action Window, the corporation is seeking to promote loaning of cash to female-led enterprises, seeing that previously, only 5% of its lending went to women.

To facilitate a successful deployment of loans to women, the corporation is looking for partners, to assist through financial concessional credit lines, guarantee mechanisms, risk-sharing facilities, innovation funds, grants for technical assistance and even grants for enabling environment and infrastructures like post-harvest handling at communal levels to generate confidence in warehouse receipts systems.

Business Daily Quoted AFC’s Statement in Part

The Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), a wholly-owned Government Development Finance Institution (DFI), is tasked with assisting in the effective and peaceful transfer of land to indigenous farmers, as well as injecting new capital to farm owners to spur development. It also provides credit for the sole purpose of developing agriculture.