The Funding Gap in African Agribusiness: Why Capital and Structure Keep Missing Each Other
Africa's agriculture sector employs the majority of the continent's workforce and anchors food security for over a billion people, yet it remains the most under-financed productive sector on the continent. Estimates vary, but they converge on the same story: agri-SMEs represent a financing need well over $90 billion annually, with only a fraction currently met, against a continental food import bill that continues to climb past $110 billion. This is not a story about capital scarcity in the abstract. Africa has capital — diaspora remittances, sovereign wealth, DFI mandates, climate finance, impact funds. What it lacks is capital that is structured to meet agribusiness where it actually lives.
