KfW is administering a EUR 10 million grant from the German Government to the Republic of Mali, which will be made available to Malian financial institutions as a credit line for on-lending. The funds aim to finance the agricultural sector and will mainly target very small, small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises. The programme will be designed in line with the special initiative “One World – No Hunger” from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Among the aims are the promotion of sustainable agriculture and food security. Following an initial market and feasibility study conducted by IPC, KfW commissioned a second study to develop an appropriate project structure and identify eligible project partners for the implementation of the rural financing programme. Another purpose of the study was to provide justification the EUR 10 million financial volume of the programme.

IPC’s experts implemented the following tasks:

• reviewing existing information and identifying applicable information gaps

• conducting on-location research of the market environment and the modalities to implement an agricultural finance programme in Mali
• conducting interviews with a wide range of stakeholders (local actors, NGO’s, ministries, government institutions and international donors, including “One World – No Hunger” actors in Mali) to develop recommendations on the setup of the programme
• analysing digital financial services available in Mali as well as mobile network operators
• conducting a due diligence of short-listed Malian financial institutions, namely BNDA, BMS and Kafo Jiginew
• defining a programme design
• organising and facilitating a strategic workshop with KfW counterparts
• drafting the feasibility study report and technical assistance proposal, including the results of the due diligences