Aceli Africa is a market catalyst leveraging public and philanthropic resources to unlock agricultural lending that generates social and environmental impact.

The report covers data gathered for an additional 13.2k loans totaling $749M issued by 31 lenders to agri-SMEs in East Africa during the period 2019-2021.

Key takeaways from this report are: 
- Aceli’s partner lenders increased their lending despite the challenging macro environment.
- However, agri-SME lending still represents less 5% of the overall portfolios for commercial banks in the region.
- Lending data underscores the need to address the top two barriers identified by lenders: i) high risk and ii) high transaction costs of agri-SME lending.
- Aceli’s incentives reduce the return gap of agri-SME lending relative to other sectors and are beginning to shift lender practices in promising directions. 

2023 Financial Benchmarking Report

Aceli Africa; public; philanthropic resources; agricultural lending; agri-SMEs; blended finance 