Established in 2014, Twiga Foods (“Twiga” or the “Company”) is a distributor of fresh fruits & vegetables and fast-moving consumer goods in Kenya. Through its unified digital platform and robust logistics network, the company efficiently connects farmers and retail vendors to increase the availability, affordability and accessibility of food. The company is an existing IFC Disruptive Technologies and Venture Capital group portfolio client (#41195). IFC is also currently offering advisory services to Twiga on food safety, agronomy, soil & water, and agri-finance through the Africa Food Safety Program (AS project #601759).

IFC is proposing to invest, through unfunded Risk Sharing Facilities (“RSFs”) with tier 1 commercial banks in Kenya, up to KES1.6 billion (US$15 million equivalent) for an aggregate portfolio of loans up to KES3.2 billion (US$30 million equivalent) to support the development of up to 300 irrigated medium-scale (>15ha) contract farmers (the “Program”). Complementing seasonal supply from Twiga’s existing ~19,500 smallholder supply base, the irrigated medium farms are expected to add stable year-round volume which would contribute to better food availability, affordability and quality in the markets Twiga serve. The RSFs will be scaled up in phases and the first phase will be implemented with KCB Bank Kenya Limited (“KCB Kenya”).

The Program will also be potentially supported with blended finance through the Global SME Finance Facility (“GSMEF”) and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (“We-Fi”) to de-risk the project and incentivize the Company to achieve significant growth in lending to medium scale farmers which are Small and Medium Enterprises (“SMEs”) including women SMEs (“WSMEs”).   

IFC Advisory Services will work with Twiga and its technical partners to provide technical and organization support services to the medium scale farms. The proposed IFC Advisory Services engagement will consist of: (i) agronomy technical assistance; (ii) coaching of Twiga agronomists & farm managers; (iii) assessment of feasibility/farms’ business planning; and (iv) financial literacy/operations management program.