Who we are
“Financing for Agricultural SMEs in Africa” or “FASA” is a multi-donor fund of funds that aims to drive significant outcomes in food security and nutrition, improved livelihoods and climate-smart agricultural value chains, by mobilizing capital for underserved agri-SMEs in Africa.
Our Vision and Mission
FASA’s mission is to reduce the funding gap faced by agri-SMEs in Africa by mobilizing catalytic capital, enhancing the capacity of investment fund managers to invest in impactful agri-SMEs, and fostering a supportive ecosystem.
Our vision is to contribute to transform African agriculture by enhancing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, and promoting climate-smart value chains.
As a fund-of-funds, FASA primarily focus on investment fund managers, who will then provide funding and support to agri-SMEs aligned with our mandate.
Focus: what are agri-SMEs?
FASA’s scope of agri-SMEs corresponds to the scope defined by SAFIN (The Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network) and ISF Advisors.
Agri-SMEs are entities that are involved in the agricultural value chain, either directly or by providing enabling services to value chain actors. These are:
Food-centric SMEs.
Either conventional or tech-driven SMEs that are central to food systems, including SMEs involved in the various stages of the agricultural sector, from input supply and pre-production, to production, post-harvest and transport, trading and marketing, processing, and retail and consumption, and agri-service SMEs such as advisory, supply chain management, equipment, market access and finance providers.
Farmer cooperatives
Cooperatives such as farmer organisations and rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs)
Small companies
Companies with less than 300 employees, and an annual turnover or total assets less than $15M.
Our story
FASA was born from the shared ambition of multiple international donors to tackle one of Africa’s most pressing challenges: the $100 billion financing gap faced by agri-SMEs. Recognizing the sector’s vital role in food security, job creation, and climate resilience, FASA was launched with initial contributions from Norway and USAID.
Leadership & Partners
FASA is managed by Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), a pioneer in impact investing with over 20 years of experience supporting African entrepreneurs and fund managers.
Key Partners
CGIAR ImpactSF: Agricultural and climate partner, providing data-driven insights and capacity building.
Small Foundation: Supporting FASA’s learning agenda.
Donors
Wiem Abdeljaouad
Senior Advisor to the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund and co-founder of Actawa, a gender-smart seed fund in Tunisia
Mamadou NDAO
Investment Director at I&P and co-founder and CEO of Teranga Capital.
Hugues Vincent-Genod
Director of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund program and former lead of the IPDEV2 project, sponsoring 10 African funds
Governance
FASA operates with a robust governance framework designed to ensure transparency, accountability, and alignment with its mission.
FASA’s Investment Manager sets up an Advisory Investment Committee composed of external experts who will provide guidance and recommendations in respect of investment and divestment opportunities.
FASA Sterring Committee
The Council establishes a consultative committee constituted by FASA’s contributors to provide guidance, recommendations, and opinions to the Council on the affairs of FASA. This committee, referred to as the Steering Committee, has various responsibilities amongst which:
- Ensuring FASA’s strategic priorities are met.
- Providing guidance to the Council on FASA’s strategic objectives and monitoring and evaluation processes, while facilitating networking and engagement of key strategic partners.
- Providing opinion on any temporary exception or deviation to FASA’s Policy, as well as on situations of conflict of interest.
FASA’s main contributors will be gathered in a Committee of Protectors that will bring an additional layer of oversight and control to ensure the Foundation’s objectives are met, with a decision power. The Steering Committee may convene a Committee of Protectors whenever a material change in the Foundation’s operations, governance, or strategic direction is at stake.
For more information on FASA,
please reach out to our team at
Wiem Abdeljaouad
Wiem Abdeljaouad is currently a Senior Advisor to the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund. She is also the co-founder and partner of Actawa, a €10M gender-smart seed fund in Tunisia.
Actawa will back scalable start-ups positively impacting women and youth, by leveraging its GPs engineering and investment background as well as its strategic partnership with Investisseurs et Partenaires (I&P), a pioneering impact investment group in Africa.
After starting her career in the capital markets in Paris then in London, Wiem shifted towards impact investing when moving to Uganda and joining PCP, an independent fund manager providing debt and equity to start-ups and SMEs operating in the agricultural value chain in Eastern and Southern Africa. Since then, she has been supporting various international organisations and investment fund managers with screening, financial analysis, due diligence, and structuring.
Wiem holds a master’s degree in computer science and applied mathematics, and a MSc in international finance from HEC Paris.
Hugues Vincent-Genod
Hugues joined I&P in 2011 and holds the position of Director within the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund program since 2022.
Based in Accra between 2011 and 2012, he worked on the launch of the new I&P office in Ghana and the development of the West African portfolio.
From 2013 to 2021, he is in charge of the project I&P Développement 2 (IPDEV2), which consists in sponsoring 10 new African funds over 10 years. He has notably worked with Sinergi Burkina (Burkina Faso), Comoé Capital (Côte d’Ivoire) and on the launch of new impact funds.
Prior to joining I&P Hugues has realized several missions for organisations that support entrepreneurship in France and in Central Africa.
Hugues graduated from London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris with a Double Degree in Finance and International Affairs.
Publications
• USAID and Partners: Accelerating African Entrepreneurship through Local Impact Investing, Global Entrepreneurship Network, November 2016
• Investing in Africa’s Small and Growing Businesses, May 2015
• Performing due diligence on startups in Africa: analyzing investment opportunities, VC4A, May 2015
• Attracting African Capital to Invest in African Small and Growing Businesses: A Utopia?, Business Fights Poverty, May 2015
• Unlocking Equity For Early-stage Entrepreneurs in Africa, Business Fights Poverty, November 2014
Mamadou NDAO
Mamadou Ndao joined the team in 2015, after a preliminary internship with I&P to complete his Master’s degree in Management and Finance at ESCP Europe. Based in Dakar, Mamadou followed I&P’s portfolio in Senegal (4 IPAE investees and 3 IPDEV investees) and one investee in Benin (IPAE) and looks for new investment opportunities.
In 2018 Mamadou joined the team dedicated to I&P Développement 2 (IPDEV 2). He is responsible for supporting existing funds and launching new funds sponsored by IPDEV 2.
Experience
• Investment Analyst, I&P (sept-dec 2014)
• Strategy and M&A Analyst, Bel (January-June 2014)
• Budget Controller, Natixis(November 2011 – August 2013)
Education
• ESCP Europe, Master in Management, Finance (2010 – 2014)
• IIM Ahmedabad, Post-Graduate Programme in Management, (exchange semester, 2012)