Empowering rural Africa: Small Foundation increases support to AFRACA

Small Foundation is delighted to announce a new phase of partnership with the African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA). This three-year partnership will support AFRACA’s newly formed Impact Task Force, as well as AFRACA’s ongoing network strategy, membership engagement and knowledge management work.

AFRACA envisage that the member-led AFRACA Impact Task Force (AITF) will be a ground-breaking initiative enabling African financial institutions to shine a light on the impact their agricultural and rural finance is having on the continent. This work will sit alongside ongoing themes that the AFRACA network is exploring, including African DFI development, African central bank engagement on rural finance, African aquaculture, and the digitisation of rural finance in Africa.

AFRACA is an association of African financial, non-financial and regulatory institutions that promotes rural and agricultural finance across the African continent. In 2021 its members were headquartered in 29 countries in Africa.

AFRACA was established in 1977 as a lead advocate and co-ordinator of rural and agricultural finance in sub-Saharan Africa. The AFRACA secretariat is based in Nairobi, Kenya where it was registered under the NGOs Coordination Act in 1981 and received diplomatic status in 2003.

This partnership is integral to Small Foundation’s overall portfolio of work supporting impact networks. Inspired by the work of Converge and David Ehrlichman, Small Foundation supports mission-aligned impact networks seeking to increase the effectiveness of rural-impacting small business ecosystems.

Small Foundation is looking forward to working with Secretary General Thomas T. Essel and the AFRACA team in the months ahead. For more information about this partnership, please contact Liz Wilson on elizabethwilson@smallfoundation.ie