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The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Bayer Foundation have launched the first investments under their Food Systems Innovation Finance Facility, deploying $1 million in catalytic financing to agribusinesses in Uganda and Kenya aimed at strengthening food systems in underserved markets.
The inaugural transactions include a $500,000 local currency loan to Uganda’s Omia Agribusiness Development Group Limited and a similar $500,000 facility to Kenya-based SokoFresh, marking the shift of the programme from design phase into active capital deployment.
The facility targets early-stage and growth-stage food system enterprises across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America that face persistent financing gaps due to limited access to concessional capital and high borrowing costs from commercial lenders. It uses blended finance and tailored instruments intended to reduce risk and attract additional private investment over time.
Omia Agribusiness, which operates in northern Uganda, currently serves more than 90,000 smallholder farmers through input supply, extension services and market access support. The new financing is expected to expand its reach by more than 75,000 additional farmers, including women and refugees, according to the company.
The investment also includes a performance-linked incentive mechanism tied to impact targets such as outreach to women and refugee farmers.
In Kenya, SokoFresh will use the four-year loan to scale its solar-powered cold storage and aggregation services for fresh produce and cereal value chains. The company works with smallholder farmers to reduce post-harvest losses and improve market access, with the financing expected to support more than 5,000 farmers annually and raise incomes by about 10%.
SokoFresh said the funding would help strengthen storage infrastructure and improve pricing and payment systems for farmers.
The investments come at a time when development finance is under pressure. OECD data shows official development assistance fell 23.1% in 2025, the sharpest annual decline on record, intensifying calls for new models that can mobilise private capital into high-impact sectors such as food systems.
UNCDF said the facility is designed to use concessional capital to de-risk early-stage investments and build a pipeline that can eventually attract commercial financing at scale. Bayer Foundation described the initiative as a way to deploy philanthropic capital more catalytically to address structural gaps in agricultural value chains.
The partners said they are seeking additional foundations and development actors to join the facility as it expands its pipeline of investments across multiple regions.
UNCDF operates in more than 70 countries, focusing on mobilising capital for high-risk markets including least developed countries and small island developing states. Bayer Foundation supports innovation in health and agriculture, with a focus on strengthening local systems and improving livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries.
Ronald Bwire Read More