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Agriculture
Citizen mobilization
Agricultural finance
Facilitating Financial Access for Sahelian Family Agriculture
- Strengthening the roots of family farming: finance for change
Strengthening the roots of family farming: finance for change
With the FRCF-FA, SOS Faim is implementing socially useful finance, promoting empowerment and resilience, by putting itself at the service of family farms, as close as possible to rural African territories
As part of the 2024-2028 framework agreement, SOS Faim is strengthening its commitment to better financing for family farms through a strategic tool: the Fonds de Renforcement des Capacités Financières pour le Financement Agricole (Financial Capacity Building Fund for Agricultural Financing) (FRCF-FA). Based on the lessons learned from the AGRI+ programme, this fund is a response to the persistent challenges of under-financing family farming in West Africa – a sector that is essential to food security, the economic resilience of rural areas and social justice.
True to its values of solidarity, equity and empowerment of local stakeholders, SOS Faim is adopting an approach based on proximity, trust and the innovative potential of rural microfinance institutions. The FRCF-FA gives priority to MFIs with cooperative governance, committed to developing financial products tailored to production, agricultural processing, agro-ecology and the integration of young people.
The aim is clear: to strengthen the capacity of MFIs to support modern, sustainable and resilient family farming, in particular by financing agricultural equipment, integrating into growth sectors and improving productivity.
By 2028, the aim is to mobilise between 2 and 2.5 million euros with the aim of supporting 10 to 15 rural MFIs and give 20,000 to 25,000 farmers access to appropriate financing.
From its very first year, the FRCF-FA has demonstrated its effectiveness. Three MFIs were selected for their strong local roots and commitment to agricultural finance: RENACA (Benin), UBTEC (Burkina Faso) and CVECA-ON/Ségou (Mali). Analysis in the field shows that funding is clearly focused on structural needs: purchasing equipment, improving production systems, supporting agro-ecology and developing irrigated crops. Institutions such as UBTEC, resilient in times of security crisis, and CVECA-ON/Ségou, active in unstable areas, illustrate the relevance of support that goes beyond traditional financial indicators.
A Momentum to Build On
This first phase has enabled us to better identify the levers to be strengthened: securing land tenure, access to water, structuring agricultural sectors and agro-ecological transition. Targeted support for MFIs in these areas will increase the qualitative impact of the FRCF-FA in the years to come.
By supporting local MFIs that work on a daily basis for rural populations, SOS Faim is affirming its desire to build an adapted and transformative form of agricultural finance, at the service of those who feed the continent.