The Agriculture Fast Track Fund (“AFT”) builds on previous G8 and G20 commitments by supporting financially sound, environmentally sustainable, and socially beneficial food security projects. As a project preparation facility, the projects the AFT supports form a pipeline of bankable food security projects that support Africa’s agriculture transformation agenda. The AFT provides grant funds for project development costs such as feasibility studies, market research, financial modeling, business plan development, and environmental and social impact studies. The AFT increases the number of investment-ready agriculture infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships by defraying front-end project development costs and risks that commercial developers or other project sponsors are unable to shoulder alone. A modest amount of targeted donor funding can unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in concessional and commercial financing for agriculture infrastructure needs in rural Africa.
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