By Faridat Salifu
Speaking at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali on Friday, the head of Nigeria’s National Agricultural Development Fund made the case that modernising African agriculture will take more than money alone, it will take a fundamentally different way of organising that money.
Mohammed Ibrahim, NADF’s Executive Secretary, used a plenary session titled “Aligning Investment to Fast-Track CAADP Objectives” to push for a financing framework blending public, private and concessional resources.
His argument centered on moving past traditional funding approaches toward structures that tie investment directly to national priorities, cut risk, and pull in more private sector participation.
As he put it, the goal is shifting from simply funding projects to building genuine financial architecture around them.
According to Ibrahim, the real obstacle facing agricultural financing isn’t just how much capital exists, it’s how scattered and poorly coordinated that capital tends to be.
He described the problem plainly, capital availability is sometimes an issue, but fragmentation, the absence of any real structure tying resources together, is just as significant.
NADF’s response, he said, involves de-risking agricultural investments and building credible, bankable project pipelines capable of drawing in private financing on their own merits.
He was careful to frame public money as a catalyst rather than a substitute, arguing it should pull private investment in rather than crowd it out, while flagging the shortage of commercially viable projects as a persistent barrier to mobilising capital at scale.
His question to the room was direct, without credible pipelines or the right kinds of projects to attract private capital, what options are actually left?
Ibrahim also pushed for stronger data and accountability systems, arguing that better information leads to better investment decisions and ensures agricultural financing actually delivers for the people it’s meant to help, particularly smallholder farmers.
Strengthening data for investment decisions comes first, he said, since no serious investment decision gets made without a clear look at what the data shows.
Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Director of Adaptive and Equitable Food Systems at the Gates Foundation, offered a complementary perspective, arguing that philanthropic capital has a distinct role to play, providing patient, higher risk financing for untested agricultural solutions before commercial investors are willing to step in.
That kind of early stage funding, she said, can generate evidence, build public sector capacity and reduce risk, ultimately making agricultural investments more appealing to commercial capital down the line.
Across the discussion, participants converged on a shared conclusion, hitting CAADP’s objectives will require more than just larger funding totals.
What’s needed instead, they argued, is coordinated financing, credible investment pipelines, stronger accountability, and tighter alignment between public policy and private capital, the combination needed to turn commitments into actual gains in agricultural productivity.
