Agricultural Markets: The World Bank lends $100 million to Cameroon
17 December 2014
Read by 3378 persons
Financing will support the corn, cassava, and sorghum sectors over the next five years. Above all, it will allow 120,000 small Cameroonian producers to supply agro-industrial groups such as Nestle and Guinness.
Nestle is committed to buying more than 1,500 tons of starch annually from small Cameroonian producers. For its part, Guinness (Diageo group) will obtain more than 9,000 tons of sorghum grain each year. These are two expected results from the 50 billion CFA francs ($100 million) that the World Bank is making available to Cameroon.
Through the Agricultural Market Investment and Development Project (PIDMA), the aim is to support the corn, cassava, and sorghum sectors over the next five years, to make them commercial and market-oriented crops. Cameroon needs 200,000 tons of corn, 1.4 million tons of cassava tubers (for 30,000 tons of flour and starch), and 30,000 tons of sorghum each year.
Thanks to the project, research institutes will provide quality seeds and improved varieties to 120,000 farmers who will thus be able to triple their yields.
Needs
The establishment of a new partnership will allow "smallholder cooperatives not only to access the investments needed to meet the needs of agro-business buyers, but also to sell their products directly to agro-businesses," stressed Gregor Binkert, the World Bank's operations director in Cameroon.
Concretely, banks (Afriland First Bank, the International Bank of Cameroon for Savings and Credit - BICEC - and Ecobank) will grant loans to cooperatives that will deliver all or part of their harvest to agro-industries.
Already, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank subsidiary dedicated to the private sector, is making a $5 million guarantee line available to BICEC, which will grant credit to two cooperatives in the north of the country in connection with Guinness.
jeuneafrique.com
Article posted on December 17, 2014
Nestle is committed to buying more than 1,500 tons of starch annually from small Cameroonian producers. For its part, Guinness (Diageo group) will obtain more than 9,000 tons of sorghum grain each year. These are two expected results from the 50 billion CFA francs ($100 million) that the World Bank is making available to Cameroon.
Through the Agricultural Market Investment and Development Project (PIDMA), the aim is to support the corn, cassava, and sorghum sectors over the next five years, to make them commercial and market-oriented crops. Cameroon needs 200,000 tons of corn, 1.4 million tons of cassava tubers (for 30,000 tons of flour and starch), and 30,000 tons of sorghum each year.
Thanks to the project, research institutes will provide quality seeds and improved varieties to 120,000 farmers who will thus be able to triple their yields.
Needs
The establishment of a new partnership will allow "smallholder cooperatives not only to access the investments needed to meet the needs of agro-business buyers, but also to sell their products directly to agro-businesses," stressed Gregor Binkert, the World Bank's operations director in Cameroon.
Concretely, banks (Afriland First Bank, the International Bank of Cameroon for Savings and Credit - BICEC - and Ecobank) will grant loans to cooperatives that will deliver all or part of their harvest to agro-industries.
Already, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank subsidiary dedicated to the private sector, is making a $5 million guarantee line available to BICEC, which will grant credit to two cooperatives in the north of the country in connection with Guinness.
jeuneafrique.com
Article posted on December 17, 2014
