Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund

Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) enhances the livelihoods and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers by providing financial and non-financial support to early-stage agribusinesses in East and West Africa

Investment

Countries: Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda
Start date: September 2019
Sector: Agriculture
Investment: 396,538 USD
Commitment: 2,000,000 USD
Fund %: 4,62%
Current size: 43.3 M USD
Target size: 50-63 M USD
Instrument: Fund and equity

Fund Description

ARAF is an Acumen originated USD 50M investment fund with a 12% target IRR designed to enhance the livelihoods and climate change resilience of 10M smallholder farmers in East and West Africa.

ARAF is anchor funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), set up by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010. It has a 50% (up to USD 25 M) First Loss Tranche for its investors, and a USD6 million Technical Assistance (grants received from several donors) to help its investees.

Social Challenges Addressed

Key SDGs supported

The world’s 2.4 billion smallholder farmers still make up over half of the world’s poor. A substantial percentage of those small farmers live in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region predominantly rural with agriculture as the main occupation area, mainly subsistence farming. It is estimated that around 70% of the population in these countries depend on agriculture. Their livelihoods are greatly unstable lacking any safety net, and their vulnerability will grow as climate change advances.

Based on Acumen’s experience, ARAF will help improve the livings of small farmers including new instruments to tackle climate change (climate resilience):
  1. Aggregator Platforms: bypassing intermediaries and getting directly to providers and suppliers.
  2. Information & Communication Technology: access to knowledge, information, networking, buyers and suppliers, etc.
  3. Financial Service Providers: companies providing access to formal financial services like affordable credit, saving products, insurance solutions, etc., enabling farmers to purchase improved inputs or other productive assets to diversify their incomes, increasing their livelihoods and their resilience against negative impacts of climate change.
About Global Social Impact Investments

Global Social Impact Investments SGIIC SAU is an impact investment funds manager that helps investors achieve positive social and environmental impact together with financial returns.

GSI is part of Santa Comba Gestión SL, a family holding that brings together projects promoting freedom through knowledge.

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