Stakeholders in the Agric sector now have till November 16th, 2018 to take advantage of grant money (to the tune of $1.5 million) which has been made available by the Agriculture Fast Track Fund, AFTF.
Agric business owners are eligible to apply for the grant, provided their applications meet some specified criteria that are listed below.
What is the Agriculture Track Fund?
According to information obtained from the Agriculture Fast Track (AFT) website, the AFTF grants “are targeted at agriculture infrastructure projects with a total investment of over US$ 1 million located in any of the countries mentioned above, for grants between US$ 100,000 and US$ 1,500,000.”
The grants will advance agricultural projects by covering the costs for feasibility studies, research, impact studies, and more.
Requirement for participation
Specifically, only applications from some selected African countries will be entertained. Nigeria is one of the countries, as are- Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania.
Beside the above requirement, other criteria that will be considered are the size and potential impact of every submitted proposal.
Women in the above-mentioned countries are particularly encouraged to apply, as are others in the following categories-
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture sector
- Government agencies preparing agriculture infrastructure projects
- NGOs and civil society organizations such as farmer organizations
- Agriculture Fund Managers with clients seeking last mile financing or advisory services to formulate bankable agricultural development proposals Women organizations are strongly encouraged to apply
The AFT Fund is a multi-donor trust fund managed by the African Development Bank with funding support from the US government represented by USAID (US$ 14.024 million), the Danish Government represented by DANIDA (US$ 1.823 million) and the Swedish Government represented by SIDA (US$ 7.837 million). It was launched on 8 May 2013 with initial funding amounting to US$ 23.684 million. The AFT is housed at the Agriculture & Agro-Industry Department (AHAI) of the African Development Bank.
what are the conditions for someone who want to start oil palm plantation with about five hecters of land assured.
Our organization wishes to expand her cocoa bread factory . Are we qualify to apply for the agriculture fast track fund?