IFC a member of the World Bank Group has signed an agreement to provide a FCFA 2.5 billion ($ amount) risk sharing facility to Banque Internationale du Cameroun pour l'Épargne et le Crédit (BICEC), to support its lending activities to agricultural cooperatives active in the productions of cassava, maize, and sorghum.

Currently, 80% of cassava, maize, and sorghum, bought by Cameroon agribusiness companies is imported, even though 75% of Cameroon farms grow these crops.

The project will share the risk of lending to local cooperative producers selected under the World Bank's Agriculture Investment and Market Development (“PIDMA”) Project, which works to support the transformation of low productivity, subsistence-oriented cassava, maize and sorghum producers into commercially-oriented and competitive value chains.

Saran Kebet-Koulibaly, IFC Regional for West and Central Africa said, “BICEC is an important partner for IFC to reach and support producers of basic foods in Cameroon. On the average, only 3-5% of bank lending in Africa goes to agriculture though 60% of Africans derive their livelihood from it.

IFC aims to help build a more productive and efficient agricultural sector in the region through better access to finance, markets, and inputs and supporting competitive supply chains. These contribute to our goal of boosting shared prosperity."

BICEC's Managing Director, said, “IFC's financing fits well with BICEC's strategy to take more risk and increase our investments in agriculture in Cameroon under comprehensive programs such as PIDMA which promote an innovative approach to support a sector that is critical to the country's development. It will allow BICEC to successfully expand its agriculture portfolio.”

BICEC has been increasingly active in the agricultural sector over the last decade. In 2014, BICEC's agricultural department originated loans to various parties in the aggregate amount of FCFA 18 billion allowing BICEC to reach directly and indirectly more than 200,000 smallholder farmers.

A joint IFC and IDA team will help ensure that the PIDMA project provides producing organizations with the necessary capacity building to improve their operations, addresses producers constraints related to their operating environment, including poor infrastructure and logistics, and more generally reduces operating constraints to improve productivity.

The investment component of IFC's intervention is supported by the Global Agricultural Food Security Program (“GAFSP”). IFC will also provide advisory services to BICEC to help it become more familiar with the financing of agricultural projects.