The MasterCard Foundation has committed a total of $38.3m to AgDevCo, ICCO Cooperation, and Root Capital for programs to improve productivity and market access for farmers in 11 African countries. 

Ann Miles, Director of Financial Inclusion at The MasterCard Foundation, said: “Smallholder farmers in Africa, need special attention to increase productivity and break out of their subsistence operation.”

“We're proud to work with such strong partners as AgDevCo, ICCO Cooperation, and Root Capital to enable smallholders to produce more, sell better, and work with local organizations in markets that are fair, transparent, and sustainable,” she said. 

Through its partnerships with AgDevCo, ICCO Cooperation, and Root Capital, The MasterCard Foundation supports multiple activities in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

These activities include: providing training and better quality inputs to farmers; implementing mobile technology solutions; brokering long-term purchase contracts; supporting high-impact, early-stage agricultural businesses with capital needs under $150,000 and/or business revenues under $300,000; developing and implementing innovative risk-mitigation tools, and developing new agricultural finance products and services for smallholder farmers. 

AgDevCo is a social impact investor and agribusiness project developer, incorporated in the UK. 

With support from UKAid, AgDevCo invests patient capital in the form of debt and equity into early-stage agribusinesses.

Chris Isaac, Director of Investments at AgDevCo, said: “Linking smallholder farmers to profitable markets is one of the best ways of lifting large numbers of people out of poverty.”

“The MasterCard Foundation's support will allow AgDevCo to connect our SME investees - socially responsible faming and agri-processing enterprises in Africa - to hundreds of thousands of farmers, to boost productivity, lift incomes and improve food security,” he said. 

Root Capital is an impact investing pioneer that grows rural prosperity in poor, environmentally vulnerable places in Africa, Asia, and Latin America by providing capital, delivering financial training, and strengthening market connections for small and growing agricultural businesses. 

“Our partnership with The MasterCard Foundation enables us to increasingly target earlier-stage businesses in Africa operating on the fringes of financial inclusion,” added Mireille William, acting General Manager for Root Capital in West Africa. 

“Together, we're committed to providing these high-impact businesses with the capital and training they need to become engines of impact in their communities.”

ICCO Cooperation is a global, non-governmental organization that offers brokering services for public private partnerships and is experienced in working with a wide range of financial instruments: microfinance (ICCO Terrafina MicroFinance), impact investments (ICCO Investments) and co-entrepreneurship (Agribusiness Booster).

ICCO Cooperation has just launched its STARS (Strengthening African Rural Smallholders) program in Senegal, after recent launches in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso.

The three partnerships are part of The MasterCard Foundation's portfolio of work supporting smallholder farmers in Africa. 

To date, the Foundation has committed more than $300m to support agricultural initiatives, including $175m for rural and agricultural finance projects.