The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its technical assistance to SAIP (Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Food Security Project), convened a roundtable discussion with members of financial institutions and insurance companies in Rwanda. The discussion was about charting a way forward to building a strong synergy that spurs, fosters, and improves the agricultural financing scheme for small-scale and rural agribusinesses. 

“We really need your support because you are the ones who know exactly how agribusinesses need to be tailored so you finance them. Together we can stimulate investments and enhance the development of private investments in agribusiness and agroindustry and contribute to inclusiveness and poverty reduction.” Said Jean Claude Karemera, Senior Value Chain Development Specialist at Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) -SAIP.

 Many agribusiness proposals don’t get investments and reverse to just being business ideas, and others especially youth-owned don’t celebrate an anniversary, they die simply because they were not well-conceived to be bankable and profitable.

 “ Let’s face it. We all know that Agricultural projects are risky. And we bankers it’s something we don’t take lightly. We need to finance proposals that show that the agripreneur understands risks, demonstrates the ability to mitigate them and make a profit, and in proposals, we need to see supporting documents showing there is extensive experience in doing what the agripreneur wants to do. If bank statements and tax clearance forms are available, we need to analyze them as well.” Said Jean-Paul Nzatumukuze, Acting Agriculture Portfolio Manager at Rwanda Development Bank (BRD).  

 Youth need accessible agricultural financial schemes

 Youth in Rwandan agri-food systems represent a reservoir of employment opportunities for many young people, from both urban and rural areas. Youth are attracted to value chains that are profitable, have a ready market, require low starting capital, are agro-ecologically suitable, offer a short duration to reach maturity, and require less land. Interestingly, youth still see more opportunities around primary production, followed by trading and transportation of produce. Yet, even though they hold potential in agri-business, they lack experience and resources to take up their business operations to market levels requirements in terms of both quantity and quality. An accessible financial scheme that not only gives youth financial assistance but also financial education on loans and investment would mean a great deal.

 “ Banks are in the business and we can see that many businesses in the future will be related to agriculture. Help farmers craft bankable projects, it is actually a win-win situation for us. Because good proposals are the blueprint of business implementation and it helps us be sure that we will not lose when we finance a project. To make everyone’s task easy I think during these gatherings we should provide a checklist of what makes a good bankable proposal” said  Odile  Mukayiranga Odile, Agribusiness Manager at Bank Populaire du Rwanda (BPR).

 The role of RuralInvest

 “ Thanks to the RuralInvest toolkit investments can be improved. The toolkit specifically has steps and areas of all needed information an entrepreneur has to include in his/her proposals. We have to scale up training on the toolkit so every farmer knows how to navigate it and be able to pitch agri projects that stand a good chance before financial institutions” said Hodari Ngerero, RuralInvest Master Trainer.

 RuralInvest is a free toolkit designed to support entrepreneurs develop bankable, solid, and sustainable business proposals. The toolkit comprises user-friendly software, an e-learning course, tailored face-to-face training, user manuals, and a worldwide community of users. Through a participatory and bottom-up approach, RuralInvest methodology brings together local communities, rural entrepreneurs, government field technicians, project staff, and financing institutions to identify, prepare, evaluate and finance small-and medium-size sustainable rural investment projects.

 The roundtable discussion with members of financial institutions and insurance companies left a number of recommendations that include the need to strengthen the synergy of FAO, Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board-SAIP, and other many more Financial Institutions and to enhance FAO’s efforts to advance and scale up its initiatives to promote shock-responsive and smart-agriculture.