Aceli Africa

Aceli Africa is a market incentive facility that aims to mobilise $1.6 billion in private-sector lending for agricultural SMEs in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia by 2030. Aceli offers financial incentives to increase the risk appetite and defray lending costs of global and local financial institutions to make loans ranging from USD 15K-$1.5M to high-impact agricultural SMEs. Aceli’s incentives promote lending to agri-SMEs with limited access to finance and those with higher standards for improving farmer and worker livelihoods, promoting gender and youth inclusion, contributing to food security and nutrition, and benefiting climate and the environment.

Aceli also facilitates technical assistance to expand the ability of high-potential SMEs to qualify for and manage financing and capacity building for lenders to serve this market. Along with its learning partners, Aceli aims to quantify its model's impact and economic development return on investment and make a case for African governments to take over funding the incentives from international donors. We envision collaboration that bridges historic gaps between the Ministries of Finance and Agriculture, Central Bank policies, and enabling policies linked to commerce and trade. Aceli has received numerous inquiries to replicate the model in other geographies and sectors. It aims to demonstrate a model that can be scaled up in East Africa and beyond.

Aceli Africa has operated since late 2020, with funding from leading development actors such as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, the Swiss Development Corporation, UK FCDO, and USAID. Over the past four years, we have partnered with 40 financial institutions (commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, and social lenders) to mobilise $250M in lending.