Twiga Foods has announced that it has partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Kenya Commercial Bank to launch a Ksh. 3.2 Billion farmer support facility.
Under the arrangement, the IFC’s Global SME Finance Facility will provide the funding while KCB will be in charge of disbursement. The funding will enable Twiga Foods to reach medium scale farmers who are mainly SMEs which are not able to access loans due to limited operating track records and lower collateral levels.
The initiative seeks to support over 300 irrigated medium scale contract farmers so as to complement Twigas seasonal smallholder farmer supply base. This will enable the company to stabilize year round fresh fruit and vegetable volumes in line with their mission to supply readily available safe, affordable and high quality food to Kenya’s urban markets.
According to the Twiga CEO, Peter Njonjo, the initiative lines up strategically with the Governments Agricultural sector transformation and growth strategy which aims at boosting food security in the medium term through modernizing and scaling commercial farming for the domestic market.