Fidelity Bank, eco.business Fund Team to Expand Agribusiness Financing in Ghana

The eco.business Fund, an impact investor advised by Finance in Motion, has invested in the West African nation of Ghana by extending $15 million to Fidelity Bank, a press release said Wednesday (Aug. 31).

Fidelity Bank will lend to agribusinesses across the value chain, including food production, logistics and supply chains for domestic staples and export crops. It will also promote production and consumption practices more in line with sustainability standards and biodiversity conservation.

Both parties will be working on building up agribusinesses’ capacities, promoting market linkages, climate-resilient agricultural practices, and providing tech support for businesses and bank staff.

Fidelity Bank supports the agricultural sector, “not just because of the business and commercial opportunities it presents, but most importantly the direct impact it has on job creation, food security, improved livelihood and gender inclusion.”

Ghana is looking at becoming food self-sufficient, and has adopted sustainability standards for agribusinesses and focused more on domestic production.

The agribusiness sector is striving for innovation, with its long history rooted in doing business manually, from ancient stone tablets to modern paper documents still being used.

Read more: Digital Marketplaces Tackle 3,000 Years of Agribusiness Inertia

PYMNTS wrote recently that DiMuto CEO Gary Loh characterized the industry as a world “where IBM has a real different meaning — it stands for ‘It’s Better Manual.’”

Loh started DiMuto in 2019 to help solve pain points for agribusinesses, stemming from when his private equity family fund had issues investing in an apple producer. He said one of the things he learned was that there had to be a way to address issues about the quality of perishable goods.

DiMuto’s goal is to make sure there’s always an “unquestionable” quality of goods delivered, using video of produce and digitizing it with QR and bar codes and consolidating invoices.

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