Rural Finance Advisory Services (RFAS)
Building credit-readiness of agricultural SMEs, designing farmer-friendly loan products, and strengthening rural financial institutions across Africa.
Access to finance remains the most frequently cited constraint for agricultural SMEs and smallholder farmers across Africa. RFAS is Agri-Impact's longest-running advisory service, operating continuously since 2016 across 26 countries.
The programme works on both sides of the credit market: building the credit-readiness of borrowers and strengthening the agricultural lending capacity of financial institutions.
Services Provided
- Agricultural SME financial diagnostic and credit-readiness assessment
- Business plan development and financial model training
- Loan product design for financial institutions (seasonal, asset-backed, value-chain financing)
- Credit guarantee mechanism design and supervision
- Rural financial institution capacity building and governance
Scale
Over 8 years, RFAS has supported 340+ agricultural SMEs in accessing formal finance, facilitated the design of 18 new agricultural loan products, and trained staff at 45 rural financial institutions.