The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has launched a $200 million blended finance facility to expand climate adaptation financing for farmers in Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The facility was announced by Gérardine Mukeshimana, Vice-President of IFAD, on September 2 at the opening of the African Food Systems Forum 2026 in Kigali. “Approximately 60 per cent of IFAD core resources are invested here in Africa. And at this forum together with our partners, we are launching a 200 million US dollar blended facility to expand climate adaptation financing for farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda,” she said. ALSO READ: Lawmakers back bankable green projects to attract climate finance The announcement comes alongside a separate $21 million blended-finance partnership that IFAD is set to sign with Bank of Kigali on Friday, September 4, to expand financing for farmers’ organisations in Rwanda. According to Mukeshimana, the two financing initiatives are part of a broader effort to use development and public finance to reduce investment risks and mobilise more private capital for Africa’s food systems. Mukeshimana said governments remain central to transforming agriculture, but public financing alone will not be enough to meet the continent’s investment needs. “Public resources must be used strategically to remove constraints, to reduce risk and to unlock the private sector capital,” she noted. “Our own in-fact evidence has shown us that projects with a private sector participation generate income gains of over 64 percent, that is four times greater than those without the private sector,” she added. IFAD is working with governments and private-sector partners to invest at early stages of food systems, where risks are high but the potential for impact is also significant. “By combining finance, risk sharing facilities, technical assistance, these partnerships will expand access to credit for rural enterprises, small scale farmers and particularly, as many have mentioned, for young people and women,” she said. ALSO READ: Rwanda MPs take centre stage on climate finance Mukeshimana also announced that IFAD is launching a $10 million facility to support the growth of Africa’s small agribusinesses. She said IFAD’s investments go beyond agricultural production, supporting the wider systems needed to make food production profitable and resilient. “We support infrastructure, we support processing, we support logistics, we support digital services, skills and more importantly finance. They connect producers to markets. They create value locally and open opportunities for Africa's innovators and entrepreneurs.” “Africa is already demonstrating that the food system transformation is within our reach. What is needed is the scale; what is needed is the speed and what is needed is quality of investments to make the transformation irreversible,” she added.
