Brussels-based impact fund Kampani provided a €1 million ($1.2 million) senior unsecured loan to the Union of Community Mutual Institutions for Savings and Credit, or U-IMEC, a rural microfinance network in Senegal that began as a union of savings and credit cooperatives in Senegal. The funding will enable U-IMCEC to help more farmers adopt solar irrigation, processing equipment, water management systems, and other equipment that can boost their productivity and increase climate resilience.
The cooperative network will set up a dedicated agricultural portfolio that can make bigger loans and match the seasonal timelines farmers need to pay them back. Since its founding nearly three decades ago, U-IMCEC has expanded to offer financial literacy training, microinsurance products and mobile money solutions.
Farmer finance
Kampani was launched in 2015 by Belgian farmer organization Boerenbond, the King Baudouin Foundation, social impact investment cooperative Alterfin and other Belgian investors to supply equity and long-term debt to agriculture companies in Africa, Latin America and Asia. It sources deals from its nonprofit network.
Over two-thirds of its portfolio are Africa-based companies, including coffee cooperative Cookkanz in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Bio Phyto, which produces organic fertilizers and pesticides in Benin; and the National Union of Women Rice Parboilers in Burkina Faso.
