The Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (GIRAV) in close partnership with the Department of Cooperative Development (DoCD), has sensitised key Implementing Partners (IPs) on how to effectively operationalize the project’s Matching Grant for Groups. The synergy brought together 42 people including Regional Agriculture and Livestock Directors from across the country and Managers and Credit Officers from the three Micro-Finance Institutions working with the GIRAV project to implement part of the Matching Grant Scheme.
The two-day orientation session held in Soma, Lower River Region from July 18-19, 2024, was facilitated by resource persons drawn from the DoCD, one of the IPs of the GIRAV project. The three MFIs are the Gambia Teachers Union Cooperative Credit Union (GTUCCU), Supersonicz Microfinance and Yonna Microfinance.
Building the Operating Capacities of Partner Financial Institutions
The activity was conducted within the framework of Component 3 of the project: Mobilizing Productive Private Investments along the Value Chains. It is designed to promote private investments in productive activities and related services by addressing the major market failures that constrain the financing of investments in agricultural value chains.
The activity also provided an opportunity for the project and the three Micro-Finance Institutions and the decentralized structures of the departments of Agriculture and Livestock to jointly review the budgets received from the 74 groups awarded the GIRAV Matching Grant to help fast-track the disbursements and implementation of the sub-projects.
Addressing the Opening ceremony, Mr. Aba G Sankareh, Registrar General, DoCD underscored the significance of the orientation session for the successful implementation of the matching Grant Scheme. Mr. Sankareh noted that the project focuses on promoting private investment throughout the target value chains through specific activities to improve the business climate and strengthen key public and private institutions responsible for mobilizing private investments.
Mrs. Papia Badgie Sanyang, Director of Urban Agriculture in her welcome remarks thanked the management of the GIRAV project for the initiative. She also underlined the importance of the activity in the quest to more the country from subsistence to a market-oriented agriculture to promote the attainment of sustainable socio-economic growth and shared prosperity.
Amadou Bah, Communication Officer for the GIRAV Project deputizing for the Project Coordinator reminded participants that expectations are high in regards their contribution towards the successful implementation of the Matching Grant Scheme. He said: “According to the most recent Enterprise Survey, insufficient access to finance and the high cost of financial services are key impediments to access to finance for private sector investment in agriculture. Lending to agriculture represents less than 5 percent of all lending. The rural banking network is limited, the cost of managing small loans is high, and the perceived risk of lending is high due to unstable revenue flows, lack of collateral, and limited legal avenues for enforcing contracts.
“Expanding financial inclusion, particularly for smaller agri-enterprises, poorer agricultural households, women, and youth will require improvement and deepening of the country’s financial infrastructure (especially financial information), the development of more diversified and digitalized financial services, and new approaches for de-risking lending to agriculture by FIs.
“The Gambian Government with support from the World Bank through the GIRAV project is addressing this limited access to finance through Component 3 of the project with a USD9 million Matching Grants Scheme for co-funding productive investments to leverage private capital mobilization. Already, USD4 million which is window 2 of the grant has been awarded to 19 SMEs since August 2023 and in April 2024, 74 groups were awarded USD1.493 million grants. The project has already signed an MoU with all the three MFIs present here for the implementation of the awards to groups and individuals. The project deemed it necessary to organize this two-day orientation session with a view to help operationalize the awards for groups without further delay”.
Bah assured of the project’s unwavering commitment to its partnership with the IPs for the successful implementation of the sub-projects supported by the project.
For their part, Mr. Njundu Fatty, CEO, Supersonicz Micro-Finance, Mr. Dawda Kujabi, General Manager of the GTUCCU and Bakay Ceesay of Yonna Microfinance all lauded the initiative. They emphasized the importance of the matching grant scheme to the socio-economic transformation of the country and recognized the critical role they can play in the project implementation. They reiterated the need for renewed commitment and concerted actions from all stakeholders for the attainment of the project development objectives.
