By Sheila Williams
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is promoting easier access to finance for farmers in several West African countries through a warehouse receipts program that allows them to use their harvests as collateral so they can access loans to grow their businesses.
As part of this support, IFC today opened the two-day West Africa Warehouse Receipt Financing Forum that is gathering 100 representatives from the agribusiness sector, financial institutions, logistics companies, regulators, and relevant, regional public and private sector stakeholders to discuss the benefits of warehouse receipt financing. The forum is being supported by USAID.
Ronke-Amoni Ogunsulire, IFC Country Manager for Ghana, said, “By turning agricultural goods in storage into secure collateral for financial institutions, warehouse receipts systems unlock new markets for financial and warehousing services in the region. Peer-to-peer events like this one are important for stakeholders to learn from each other and develop a harmonized regional approach to warehouse receipt financing in West Africa.”
Warehouse receipt financing allows farmers and agribusiness SMEs to use agricultural goods stored in certified warehouses as collateral to access credit from financial institutions. Similarly, warehouse receipt systems can help address access to storage challenges faced by the agriculture sector.
The forum in Accra is gathering participants primarily from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. This regional effort complements support to individual countries in the region, including Ghana, where IFC is partnering with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Improved access to finance helps farmers and agribusiness companies source inputs, make required investments, and improve and expand their operations. However, many of these farmers businesses have been held by a lack of collateral, limiting their ability to access loans.
IFC, through its Global Warehouse Finance Program, is helping governments introduce and implement warehouse receipt systems, benefitting hundreds of thousands of Africa’s farmers.
