Ghana - Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending Project (GIRSAL)

The Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending Project (GIRSAL) is designed within the context of Ghana’s ongoing agricultural transformation including the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II” (GSGDA II). The Project will enhance agriculture financing and sector transformation through increased capital inflows into critical value chains. Indeed, the role of GIRSAL is to help accelerate financing and interconnectedness of the agriculture sector to ensure that across its key components, it is functioning at optimal levels. The project is structured to support agriculture across the nation and views its national footprint as critical to providing support for Ghana’s balance of payments, macroeconomic stability, economic growth, food and nutrition security, job creation and poverty reduction. GIRSAL’s catalytic role in mobilizing private sector financing for agriculture will be critical to the success of emerging Government of Ghana initiatives such as the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative. The initiative promotes agro-industrialization that will provide massive employment and wealth through value addition activities. The Project will have two Components: (i) Promoting de-risking for the Agriculture Sector; (ii) Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation. GIRSAL will also leverage on the activities of the Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) and link up with Transformation of the African Savannah Initiative (TASI) as a vehicle for attracting private sector investment in agriculture. Furthermore, the Project will provide technical assistance, entrepreneurship and business management training to value chain actors to improve their business operations. The total cost is estimated at UA 44.64 million.