A $200 million financing facility has been announced to expand climate finance for farmers in Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as African countries seek to strengthen food security and make agriculture more resilient to climate change.
The facility was announced during the Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 in Kigali, where President Paul Kagame held separate discussions with senior leaders of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD).
Kagame met IFAD Vice President Dr Gérardine Mukeshimana and AUDA-NEPAD CEO Nardos Bekele-Thomas to discuss agricultural development, food security and efforts to help African countries respond to climate-related challenges.
The $200 million facility will use a blended-finance model bringing together IFAD, Equity Bank, the Nordic Development Fund, Finland and the Green Climate Fund.
The financing is intended to expand investment in agriculture while helping farmers cope with the increasing risks associated with climate change.
Mukeshimana said public funding alone would not be enough to deliver the scale of investment needed to transform Africa’s agriculture and food systems.
She urged governments to use public resources to reduce investment risks and attract more private capital into agriculture.
“Public resources should be used strategically to remove barriers, reduce risks and help attract private capital,” Mukeshimana said.
She cited IFAD research indicating that projects involving private-sector participation can generate substantially higher returns for beneficiaries. According to the research, beneficiary incomes in such projects can increase by more than 64% compared with projects without private-sector involvement.
Mukeshimana said IFAD is particularly focused on the early stages of agricultural and food value chains, where investment risks tend to be higher and financing more limited, but where investment can also generate significant returns.
The discussions involving Kagame, IFAD and AUDA-NEPAD leaders come as African countries face growing pressure to increase food production, mobilise agricultural investment and strengthen resilience to climate change.
The Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 in Kigali has brought together government leaders, policymakers, investors, farmers and development partners to discuss financing and practical solutions for transforming Africa’s food systems.
The newly announced facility adds to efforts to move climate finance closer to farmers, who are among those most exposed to the effects of changing weather patterns while often having limited access to the capital needed to adapt.
