The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a 7-year, non-sovereign guarantee, $100m corporate loan to the Export Trading Group (ETG), to finance part of part of the company’s five-year Agricultural Investment Program (IP) in Africa.

The program will promote employment for youths and women, and adopt an integrated value-chain approach that emphasizes access to regional and global markets.

Africa faces a significant food security challenge and continues to depend on food imports to meet the ever-growing demand.

The continent spent over $35bn to import food in 2015 and net food imports are projected to increase to more than $110bn by 2025.

If this trend continues un-checked, Africa and its economies will be heading for major crisis, being the most food-insecure region in the world with more than 232 million under-nourished people.

ETG is one of the largest and fastest-growing integrated agricultural supply chain managers and processors in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Group was founded in Kenya in the 1967 before moving to Tanzania and is now headquartered in Dubai.

The key commodities traded by the Group are fertilizer, maize, rice, oil seeds, cashew nuts, sesame seeds, pulses, wheat, cotton, coffee, and sugar

ETG’s investment program will consist of: fertilizer projects in Kenya and Zambia; processing plants (rice, cashew, maize, sesame, cotton, biscuit) in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Togo, Ethiopia, Benin, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Uganda; multi-commodity warehouses in Burkina Faso, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Niger, Benin, Nigeria, Zambia and Ethiopia; and silos in Zimbabwe.

The program is strongly aligned with four of the top five priorities (High 5s) of the Bank namely Feed Africa, Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

It will significantly contribute not only in improving food productivity in Africa, but most importantly in value addition and the wide distribution of food across the continent using the sponsor’s broad distribution networks.

The project, approved by the AfDB Board on July 13, 2016, is expected to generate significant development outcomes at local, national and regional levels.