Unlocking investment in Africa's agrifood sector requires more than increasing the availability of finance. It calls for stronger enterprises, better-designed financial instruments and coordinated efforts to turn agricultural potential into viable investment opportunities.
This was a central message emerging from the Real Food Conference 2026, convened by the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) and Sustainable Solutions for Africa (SSA) from 13 to 15 October 2026 at the ECOVERSE campus in Kévé, Togo.
Held under the AAI Food Security Accelerator (FSA), the three-day conference brought together 58 participants representing 34 companies and institutions from 21 countries, including representatives of African governments, financial institutions, investors, agrifood enterprises, development organisations and technical partners.
Under the theme “Financing the Future of African Food Systems: Building Investable Enterprises, Stronger Partnerships, and Scalable Investments,” the conference addressed a shared challenge: despite the considerable potential of Africa's agrifood sector, too few enterprises are able to access the financing, technical support and markets needed to grow sustainably.
Building on the foundations established at the first FSA Technical Workshop in August 2025, the conference sought to move beyond identifying constraints towards developing practical financing approaches, strengthening investment pipelines and fostering partnerships capable of supporting implementation.
Bridging the Gap Between Agricultural Potential and Investment
Africa's agrifood sector offers significant opportunities for enterprise development, employment creation, food security and economic transformation. Yet translating these opportunities into viable investments remains a persistent challenge.
Throughout the conference, participants examined the structural barriers that prevent promising agrifood enterprises from attracting capital and expanding their operations.
Among the recurring challenges were the small scale and fragmentation of enterprises, limited financial and operational readiness, inadequate infrastructure, difficulties accessing markets and a mismatch between available financial products and the realities of agrifood businesses.
A central issue was the gap between the existence of financing opportunities and the ability of enterprises to access them.
For investors, identifying and supporting numerous small enterprises can involve considerable transaction costs, particularly where businesses require extensive technical assistance before becoming investment-ready. For enterprises, conventional financing requirements may be difficult to meet, even where their underlying business models demonstrate strong potential.
Participants therefore highlighted the importance of moving beyond isolated enterprise-level interventions towards more coordinated approaches to developing investment pipelines.
This includes strengthening enterprise readiness, aggregating financing opportunities, improving market linkages and creating mechanisms that allow financial institutions to invest more efficiently across agrifood value chains.
Making Finance Work for Agrifood Enterprises
A key focus of the conference was how financing solutions can be better adapted to the needs and realities of African agrifood enterprises.
SSA presented five financial instruments being explored under the FSA: green bonds, guarantee facilities, concessional finance, equity mechanisms and catalytic capital. Discussions considered their potential to address financing gaps, reduce investment risks and mobilise capital for agrifood MSMEs.
Participants emphasised that the effectiveness of these instruments depends on how well they respond to the characteristics of individual enterprises, including their size, stage of development, financing needs and capacity to absorb investment.
An important takeaway was that access to capital alone is insufficient. Many agrifood enterprises require complementary technical assistance, stronger business models and improved market access before they can attract and effectively deploy investment.
The discussions therefore highlighted the need to combine financial innovation with practical support for enterprise development, ensuring that financing solutions are not only available, but accessible and appropriate for the businesses they are intended to serve.
Building Stronger Ecosystems and Investment Pipelines
Beyond individual financing instruments, the conference examined the wider ecosystems required to support agrifood enterprise growth and investment.
Participants explored the roles of governments, financial institutions, investors, technical assistance providers and development partners in addressing barriers that cannot be resolved by enterprises acting alone.
Discussions covered enterprise certification and readiness, regional market integration, logistics and distribution, digitalisation, and the aggregation of investment opportunities.
Particular attention was given to the potential of digital technologies to improve enterprise performance, strengthen traceability, facilitate market access and reduce information gaps between businesses and financiers.
Participants also considered the importance of stronger regional partnerships in connecting producers, processors, distributors and investors across agricultural value chains.
These discussions reinforced the need for a more integrated approach to agrifood investment, one that connects enterprise development with financial structuring, market opportunities and the institutional partnerships required to support growth.
Rather than treating investment readiness, financing and market access as separate challenges, the conference emphasised their interdependence.
Turning Connections into Opportunities for Collaboration
Beyond the formal sessions, the Real Food Conference provided a platform for direct engagement between enterprises, investors, financial institutions and development partners that might otherwise have limited opportunities to connect.
The diversity of participants created opportunities to identify complementary expertise, explore potential commercial relationships and discuss areas for future cooperation.
Several exchanges during the conference opened avenues for further discussions between participating organisations, including potential collaborations around enterprise development, financing and market access.
While these opportunities remain at an exploratory stage, they reflect an important dimension of the conference's purpose: creating the conditions for new partnerships to emerge and supporting connections that could ultimately translate into practical investments and business opportunities.
The conference also provided an opportunity to advance work under the FSA, through which AAI and SSA are undertaking five financial feasibility studies and two demonstration initiatives aimed at developing financing solutions that can be adapted and scaled across African agrifood markets.
Participants exchanged perspectives on emerging financing approaches and their potential application to the needs of enterprises and financial institutions.
The ECOVERSE initiative also provided a practical setting for considering how enterprise development, local production, processing, market access and technical support can be brought together within an integrated agrifood ecosystem.
Together, these exchanges helped connect the FSA's technical work with the experiences and priorities of the institutions and enterprises it ultimately seeks to support.
Advancing a Shared Agenda for African Food Systems
The Real Food Conference 2026 reinforced the importance of African-led approaches to financing and developing the continent's agrifood sector.
While greater capital mobilisation remains essential, the discussions demonstrated that the effectiveness of investment will depend equally on the strength of the enterprises, institutions and market systems through which that capital is deployed.
For AAI and SSA, the conference represents an important step in the continued implementation of the Food Security Accelerator, bringing together financial expertise, institutional partnerships and practical insights to inform the next stages of its work.
Equally important will be maintaining the momentum generated in Kévé, supporting continued exchanges between participants and exploring how the opportunities identified during the conference can develop into more structured collaborations.
The next challenge is to translate these discussions and connections into stronger investment pipelines, financing mechanisms adapted to African market realities and partnerships that can support enterprises beyond the conference itself.
The central message from Kévé was clear: transforming African food systems requires not only more investment, but a more coordinated effort to make agrifood enterprises investable, financing accessible and investment scalable.
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