Aceli Africa

Aceli Founder & CEO Brian Milder recently spoke with Scaling Impact Capital author Kusi Hornberger about the journey to design and launch Aceli, and learning over the first four years of implementation. In the conversation, Brian highlights the importance of adaptability in agricultural finance, sharing insights that continue to inform Aceli’s evolving approach in the sector. Listen to the full podcast here ▶️ https://bit.ly/3NpwQs7 Kusi H.

We're #hiring for two positions on our Product team: 📌 An #Associate to supervise a group of loan review Fellows and contribute to Aceli's #product #operations such as running quarterly payments, providing inputs on process improvements, and participating in User Acceptance Tests on Aceli’s tech platform. Learn more & apply: https://lnkd.in/egV8X4-S 📌 A Fellow to review loan submissions and assess their qualification for the Aceli incentive program. This role offers university graduates with academic or #internship background in #finance-related roles to build experience in reviewing credit and #ESG documentation. Learn more & apply: https://lnkd.in/ea46driV Both roles are based in #Kenya and applications are due by Friday October 4th.

As leaders in the gender lens investing movement from all sectors and around the world converge next week in Nairobi for the 2X Global Summit, we would like to shine a light on a few of the findings from our new learning brief that are most relevant for agricultural SMEs in East Africa: 🚺 Women-owned businesses continue to struggle to access finance, but lenders are increasingly motivated to serve them; for example, one Kenyan bank launched a dedicated loan product and scaled up its loans to women-owned #agriSMEs from three in 2021 to 54 as of mid-2024. 💼 Women's ownership does not necessarily correlate with employing more women employees or purchasing a larger share of produce from women farmers; in fact, we found that men-owned agri-SMEs that are gender-inclusive (about half of all men-owned businesses in our dataset meet this standard) engage slightly higher percentages of women workers and farmers and a significantly higher number of women in absolute terms, as their businesses tend to be larger. 📈 Demand from lenders for capacity building to support their #genderinclusion strategies has doubled in the past year. Commercial banks are leading this market pull – an indication that gender lens investing is moving from niche to mainstream. 🔍 While these trends are encouraging, sustained interventions are needed to ensure #genderlensinvesting is not a passing fad. Additionally, much more evidence is required to go beyond output metrics and address issues such as the quality of working conditions for employees and services offered to farmers. 💡 Learn more in our new learning brief, Gender Inclusive Lending for Agriculture in Africa: https://lnkd.in/egznN3cT

Our team members bring passion, perspective, and personal experience to their work at Aceli. Our Uganda Country Director John Robert Okware shares his story of farming from age 5 all the way through to his university graduation (and he continues to farm today). His career began as a bank loan officer and progressed into senior management roles before joining the Aceli team to lead engagements with our partners in Uganda. He reflects on how his experiences have revealed both the barriers to and opportunities for growing a healthy agriculture loan portfolio, and the impact that increased lending can have on farmers and SMEs. "I know that the private sector does not always speak the same language as governments, donors, or NGOs, but I have also seen what is possible when these actors work together." Read John Robert's story in our latest addition to our "Why Agriculture" series: https://lnkd.in/gMzTH7gh

We're #hiring for a Senior Associate to support all Aceli program activities in #Zambia. Applicants must be experienced in #banking & financial services, project management, and stakeholder engagement. Additional experience in donor reporting in the fields of #agricultural development and/or #financial #inclusion is an added advantage. The role will report to the Country Director for Zambia and coordinate extensively with Aceli team members in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United States. Learn more about the position & apply today: https://lnkd.in/drwwSCBi

Agri-SMEs are vital actors in rural economies, providing market access and employment for millions across sub-Saharan Africa. But due to high risk and low returns of lending to agri-SMEs, they are chronically underfinanced. When agri-SMEs have access to sufficient financing they can offer pathways out of poverty and tools to build climate resilience for farmers and workers, particularly women and youth. In Uganda, Aceli partners with 14 commercial banks and non-bank lenders to mobilize increased lending to agri-SMEs; over the past three years, these lenders have issued $50M in loans to 700 SMEs aggregating over 300,000 smallholder farmers. One of those SMEs is Celebrate Hope Ministries, a company in Southwestern Uganda that works with women and child-headed families, many affected by HIV/AIDS, to create economic opportunities. Celebrate Hope provides farmers with training and a package of seedlings, tools, and farm inputs for coffee production and macadamia farming alongside the equipment for beekeeping. Enid Mugumbule is one of 800 farmers who have embraced this integrated agroforestry farming system. Macadamia and beekeeping diversify and increase farmers’ primary income from coffee, while also fixing nitrogen in the soil and pollinating the tree crops. As farmers invested in healthy soils, production increased, and more farmers joined Celebrate Hope, the company began to face challenges in paying farmers promptly and processing their coffee for export. In 2023, they approached one of Aceli’s Ugandan lending partners, Centenary Bank, and were able to access their first loan. This working capital enabled Celebrate Hope to purchase more coffee from farmers and increase its revenues by 18% in just one year. The company recently returned for a second, larger loan and has ambitious plans to continue expanding its reach so that more rural households can build economic independence through sustainable agriculture. #WorldMSMEDay #MissingMiddle #agriSME #sustainable #finance

In March we were joined by 200 senior leaders, agribusiness managers, frontline loan officers, technical assistance providers, industry associations, donors, and policymakers in Uganda for Aceli’s stakeholder convening on #agriSME #finance. Designed as a dialogue in the spirit of “coming together to do hard and important things,” the goals of the convening were to share learning and orient to solutions across three areas: 1) Translating strategic commitments by lenders into operational practices to increase agri-SME lending 2) Expanding reach to underserved populations and deepening impact related to women & youth, food security & nutrition, and climate & environment 3) Facilitating collaboration between actors working to unlock the growth & #impact of agri-SMEs across capital supply, capital demand, and enabling environment 💡 Read a summary of key discussions & takeaways from the convening here: https://lnkd.in/eb3qBgKH

Through our partnership with Value For Women Ltd., Aceli hosts Gender Lens Investing (GLI) workshops for our portfolio of lenders. These workshops aim to deepen lenders' knowledge of #gender #inclusion and its potential to drive positive social & financial outcomes for their institution, as well as best practices for designing and implementing gender-focused strategies. After the workshop, participants have access to office hours with Value for Women to discuss next steps for executing their gender action plans. After two years of hosting these workshops virtually, we were pleased to host our first in-person workshop in Tanzania this May. We were joined by 22 participants from 8 Tanzanian lending institutions who shared their questions, approaches, and insights across different stages of their GLI journey. CRDB Bank Plc NMB Bank Plc Azania Bank Plc Tanzania Commercial Bank Exim Bank (Tanzania) Limited EFTA Ltd Equity Bank Limited Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank

As we scale up our activities with our partners, we're pleased to welcome two new funders: Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada and Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. “Small and medium agricultural businesses are the backbone of local communities and have the potential to drive inclusive economic growth,” said Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s Minister of International Development. "Financing plays such a big part in unlocking the potential of local production and distribution of food," said Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Norway’s Minister of International Development. "Norway is committed to using public funds to reduce risks and make banks more keen to invest in agri-SMEs." With these new commitments from GAC & Norway, Aceli has reached $93M in donor support. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eHjwYc_p

We're #hiring for an Associate based in #Kenya to join our Product team. Incentives are Aceli’s primary “product” offering and are used to unlock increased private sector lending to #agricultural #SMEs. Our Product team plays a critical role in managing the incentives program, ensuring that loans are aligned with Aceli’s impact criteria, and that lenders receive appropriate and timely payouts. The Associate will interact with large datasets, communicate with commercial banks and other lenders in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, and collaborate with multiple teams within Aceli. Because this role involves review of loan #data, candidates should have direct experience with loans or familiarity with how lenders, particularly commercial banks, operate and the data they use in their #lending operations. Learn more about the role and apply today: https://lnkd.in/gq86rwqU