At a time when financing small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises remains a major challenge in Africa, FASA (“Financing for Agricultural SMEs in Africa”) is reaching a new milestone. France has officially announced its investment in this multi-donor fund-of-funds, joining Norway, the United Kingdom, and Korea. This strategic commitment acts as a powerful lever for the French agri-business private sector, demonstrating FASA’s ability to transform public capital into concrete investments supporting the continent’s food sovereignty.
France joins FASA, a unique platform for financing Africa’s agricultural sector
Managed by Investisseurs & Partenaires and fully operational since early 2025, FASA (“Financing for Agricultural SMEs in Africa”) is a pan-African initiative with $86 million in funding. Its mission is to mobilize financing for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises across Africa. To achieve this, FASA operates through three complementary pillars: deploying catalytic capital to investment funds active in the agricultural sector, providing a technical assistance program, and implementing an ambitious learning agenda aimed at documenting and sharing lessons learned for the benefit of the wider sector.
France is pleased to join Norway, the United Kingdom, and Korea within FASA’s multi-donor partnership through an initial financial commitment.
This contribution will help expand the investment and technical assistance capacities available to African agriculture, create synergies with existing French cooperation projects across the continent, and contribute to mobilizing private capital toward agricultural SMEs.
French private sector players commit to agricultural entrepreneurship
France’s commitment is accompanied by growing interest from the agri-business private sector in FASA’s mission. Several companies active in Africa and members of the ALFA association have already expressed interest in co-investing and contributing within FASA to increase the capital available for African agriculture. These include the Castel Group through its subsidiary Somdia, Compagnie Fruitière, Passion Fruit, Serène Conseil, African investment bank Financia Capital, Marc Debets, founder of APEXAGRI, and JR FARMS, a Nigerian company.
Around ten French companies are currently in discussions to join the initiative, which aims to mobilize an additional €100 million in capital. These co-financing intentions illustrate FASA’s model: using public capital to attract greater commercial resources for the benefit of African agriculture.
Significant expected impact
Through this investment, France is contributing to an effort aimed at supporting at least eight agricultural investment funds active across Africa. These funds will in turn finance hundreds of agricultural SMEs in around ten countries on the continent.
The expected impact is structured around FASA’s three impact themes:
- Improving farmers’ incomes and creating jobs across agricultural value chains;
- Strengthening food security and nutrition;
- Supporting the adaptation of agricultural value chains to climate change.
In the current geopolitical context, strengthening the food and agricultural sovereignty of the African continent is a shared priority among all partners. France’s commitment to FASA is fully aligned with this objective.
