From Magnus Eze, Abuja
Latest figures from Sahel Capital, yesterday, have shown that the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) has hit $65.9 million, with prospect of growing by additional $10 million by December.
Sahel Capital is a private fund initiated by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to provide financial, capacity-building and technical assistance to selected Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Nigerian agribusiness sector, and managed by Sahel Capital, an agribusiness-focused private equity firm.
Co-sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministry of Finance, the German Development Bank (KfW), and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), FAFIN was initially launched in 2014 with $32.8 million in commitments.
Details showed that a total of $31 million had been jointly committed to FAFIN fund by the African Development Bank, CDC Group (managing DFID Impact Fund) and the Dutch Good Growth Fund (managed by Triple Jump), joining existing co-sponsors of the fund to drive agricultural transformation in Nigeria.
The German Development Bank, as part of this round, had also offered to increase its commitments to FAFIN by an additional $10 million, which, if approved, would increase the fund size to $76 million by December 2017.