Dakar, 25 September,
2014
-- IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the government of Senegal, today announced a program that will help provide access to credit for the agricultural sector and ease the commercialization of agricultural products, contributing to a reduction in extreme poverty among some of the country’s most economically disadvantaged people.
The program will support warehouse receipt financing, which provides loans secured by goods stored in a warehouse. The warehouse manager issues to farmers, processors, or traders a receipt for the merchandise, which is used to guarantee loans from a banking institution.
. Over a period of three years, the project will set up the legal and regulatory framework to introduce and scale-up warehouse financing. It will train and raise awareness among market players along the agricultural value chain and the financial sector to put the system into operation, while developing a viable agricultural warehousing sector.
“Agribusiness is a key sector for development in Africa, with low barriers to entry that attracts a diverse array of actors participating across the value chain,” said Saran Kebet-Koulibaly, IFC Director for West and Central Africa. “This SRE project empowers Senegalese farmers to engage meaningfully in the banking system, using their unsold produce as collateral.
The project will be piloted in Senegal’s rice sector. Rice has a socio-economic importance for the country, and enjoys production conditions that guarantee a constant supply. The sector has also been fortified by numerous government structural interventions, working with development partners. The Government of Japan made a substantial financial contribution to the project.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in about 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. In FY14, we provided more than $22 billion in financing to improve lives in developing countries and tackle the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
Stay Connected
