Strategy for agricultural transformation in africa

Skill 
Assessment
Required resources 
FTE 
require-
ment 
(OSAN) 
reflecting a relatively limited exposure to 
processing.
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commercialization and agro-processing. Both sets of experts will work closely 
on helping to establish agro-processing hubs in promising zones and along key 
corridors. They will also inform on necessary enabling infrastructure.
Agricultural 
Infrastructure 
and Rural 
Development 
Adequate expertise at scale:
The Bank has a 
strong track record in both general and 
agricultural infrastructure such as roads and 
markets. 
While the requisite expertise may exist within OSAN, the Bank may need to 
consider deploying some of these experts to the general energy and infrastructure 
departments so as to ensure the prioritization of rural needs. Additionally, regular 
communication and collaboration between ‘Feed Africa’ and other relevant 
complexes will be necessary for ensuring that actual projects are coordinated. For 
example, those planning major road projects should account for connections to 
feeder roads and those planning feeder roads projects should consider how best 
to integrate them with the broader logistics network. 
3 
Agricultural 
Finance 
Previous experience, but need to develop 
expertise at scale:
The Bank has significant 
experience working with commercial banks 
across an array of issues, including trade 
credit, project finance, on-lending for 
microfinance, and credit guarantees. It should 
be noted, however, that the Bank’s financial 
sector activities have not historically 
prioritized agriculture, and initiatives outside 
of the bank’s core commercial bank support, 
such as rural microfinance, have produced 
more mixed results. The Bank has some 
experience 
managing 
investment 
and 
guarantee funds, such as the USD 250 million 
African Agriculture Fund managed by 
Phatisa and the USD 67 million African 
Guarantee Fund, although the bulk of its 
experience 
with 
non-banking 
financial 
institutions occurred in the context of projects 
concerning other sectors. The Bank’s 
financial tools for doing so—lines of credit 
Given the specific requirements for the agricultural sector, in terms of product 
design and technical knowledge of these features, the agriculture team will need 
its own specialized investment experts to provide technical and advisory services 
aimed at preparing and supporting private sector and public-private partnership 
(PPP) operations. Some of these staff members will also need to drive 
mobilization of domestic and foreign resources for investment in the ATA 
through co-financing operations with other institutions, commercial banks, and 
export credit agencies.
The required FTEs must have a background in agricultural finance, economics 
and/or business and be able to display an understanding of financial markets and, 
in particular, the farm credit system. They will have previous experience 
expanding access to finance, particularly for rural and other underserved 
populations, as well as designing and/or using innovative financial instruments 
to crowd-in new – especially private – sources of financing. Given the important 
task of resource mobilization, they should also display a history of or potential 
for generating private investment in agriculture. 
(Note: this applies to the 
combined profile of the FTEs; thus, not all 5 FTEs need to bring the full range 
of experience individually)
5 
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Dalberg analysis, AfDB Project Database, 2016 

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