ETG invests US$600M to strengthen agricultural value chains across Africa
The facility will provide fresh capital for agricultural supply chains and working capital needs across the continent.
AFRICA – A sustainability-linked financing facility for Export Trading Group (ETG) has been expanded to US$600 million, providing increased working capital support for agricultural supply chains across Africa.
The milestone follows new participation and increased commitments from a wide network of international development finance institutions, aiming to address the chronic working capital deficit across Sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural sector.
Co-arranged by FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, and the Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group), the loan facility was originally launched at US$394 million.
Its subsequent scale-up was driven by expanded backing from existing partners such as FinDev Canada, alongside new commitments from prominent investors including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Finnfund, Impact Fund Denmark, and the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB).
Previous lenders participating in the arrangement include DEG, the OPEC Fund for International Development, and Proparco.
The expanded US$600 million capital injection will primarily fund ETG’s core operations in Africa, providing essential working capital to procure, process, warehouse, and transport critical agricultural commodities, including grains, pulses, oilseeds, cashews, and coffee, as well as essential farm inputs like fertilizers.
The financing is structured as a sustainability-linked loan, meaning the cost of financing is connected to ETG’s performance against agreed environmental and social targets.
This structure is intended to encourage measurable progress in areas including farmer support, women’s participation, extension services, deforestation and reforestation.
The arrangement therefore combines access to capital with incentives for improvements in sustainability and inclusive agricultural development.
According to FMO and TDB, stronger financing for these activities can contribute to more resilient food systems, improved food security and greater participation by women and young people in rural economies.
Founded in Kenya in 1967, ETG has grown into an international agribusiness group operating across more than 50 countries and six continents.
Its activities cover agricultural inputs, logistics, processing, food and food ingredients, energy and supply-chain services.
The group has also set an ambition of reaching one million African smallholder farmers with services designed to improve production, crop quality, traceability and climate resilience.
The expanded facility comes as African agricultural value chains continue to face challenges related to financing, infrastructure, market access and access to farm inputs.
By providing additional liquidity to a major agricultural supply-chain operator, the US$600 million facility could help improve commodity flows while strengthening links between producers and domestic, regional and international markets.
The financing partners also reported that the facility has already exceeded several of its impact objectives, including targets related to deforestation and reforestation and the number of farmers, including women, receiving extension services.
The expanded financing therefore represents a significant effort to mobilize development capital while linking agricultural growth to measurable environmental and social outcomes.
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