France's Proparco grants Equity Sh141m to support 15,000 farmers
France has through its development finance institution Proparco announced a Sh141,100,000 (€1 million) support for climate-smart agriculture.
Announced on Tuesday, the technical support to Equity Group Foundation in from of a grant will benefit 15,000 smallholder farmers in adopting climate-smart agriculture.
“This initiative, under the Climate Resilient Agri-Food Systems (CRAFS) project, will provide training, financial access, and knowledge exchange to 15,000 farmers annually, equipping them with sustainable practices to enhance productivity, resilience, and environmental sustainability,” French embassy said.
French Ambassador to Kenya Arnaud Suquet said his country remains committed to fostering SMEs, entrepreneurship, and local innovation in agriculture, health, fintech, higher education, and renewable energy.
“In a country where agriculture is critical for employment, food security, and economic growth, this collaboration between France, Proparco, and EGF is a testament to our enduring partnership,” Ambassador Suquet said.
On his part, Equity Group boss James Mwangi said IFC named the financial institution as the bank with most loans towards mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
“This facility allows us to scale because we have the depositors’ money to lend but we didn’t have the money to mitigate the risk and build capacity for farmers to borrow more,” Mwangi said.
Equity Bank and Proparco have had a financial engagement on technical support, part of it focussing on SMEs
As part of the visit to Kenya of then French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Franck Riester, in 2021, Proparco granted Equity Bank two guarantee facilities, ARIZ and EURIZ totalling €39 million (Sh5 billion).
The amount was to help Equity Bank further support job creating MSMEs.
Proparco also granted a €550,000 technical assistance facility to support Equity Group Foundation’s health projects. The EURIZ guarantee and the technical assistance grant benefited from support from the European Union and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
Mwangi at the time said the strong relationship with Proparco is of a shared vision for the transformation of lives and livelihoods in Africa.
