The IREN Agri initiative sets out to accelerate agricultural transition and financial inclusion across agricultural commodity chains in Africa, starting with Côte d’Ivoire and neighboring West African nations. It is a partnership between the French banking group Société Générale and Ksapa, a mission-driven corporation that provides scalable solutions to catalyze a fair and efficient transition through its SUTTI solution to improve the livelihoods of smallholders.

Farming communities (including smallholders, cooperatives, and agri-SMEs) are at the heart of Africa’s agricultural economy, producing key commodities like cocoa, cashew, cotton, and rice that sustain millions of livelihoods. Yet climate change threatens these crops with higher temperatures, erratic rainfall, droughts, and pests. In Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa yields could fall by 40% by 2050, while suitable areas for cashew are projected to shrink in Benin and Burkina Faso. Despite their central role, farming communities face a severe financing gap: agriculture in Africa is underfunded by more than USD 70 billion.

Cooperatives and agri-SMEs, in particular, lack medium-term capital to foster sustainable production, diversify their income, and adapt their value chains, leaving rural livelihoods exposed.

IREN Agri combines three elements rarely found together in agricultural finance: medium-term loans at attractive terms, multi-year offtake agreements, & integrated technical assistance and digitalization support. Financing cooperatives rather than individual farmers strengthens entire value chains and aligns incentives between producers, traders, and banks. The model goes beyond productivity gains to promote climate-smart agricultural practices as well as alternative income streams, improving climate resilience through a holistic, multi-pronged approach. Leveraging the expertise of both proponent organizations, as well as Ksapa’s SUTTI Digital Suite and SG’s local presence, and Societe Generale’s regional networks, IREN Agri offers a scalable solution for African agricultural value chains.

IREN Agri’s initial EUR 10-15M pilot in Côte d’Ivoire targets ~25 cocoa cooperatives, working with industrial off-takers, public authorities, NGOs, and Ksapa’s SUTTI platform to deliver tailored technical assistance with regular tracking of adoption and impact. For example, targeting the rehabilitation of farmers’ lands with low productivity, the pilot aims to increase yields from 100 kg/ha to 500 kg/ha over 6 years. The range of proposed interventions is expected to boost cooperatives’ net income by EUR +53M over 10 years and similarly generate EUR +135M of additional revenues for 37,500 farmers as well as additional job creation in rural communities for women and youth. Furthermore, the estimated impact-to-investment ratio stands at 12, indicating twelve euros of income created for every euro invested. Phase 2 scaling to the EUR 100M blended fund will target similar benefits extended to some 525,000 African farmers across a range of value chains

The fully scaled IREN Agri facility is structured as a 10-year blended finance debt fund that combines senior debt, concessional debt, and catalytic equity to crowd in commercial investors. Philanthropic grants help cover the costs of technical assistance, reducing the debt burden passed to borrowers. This blended approach helps to lower the cost of capital while de-risking investor participation to drive investment in African agricultural value chains.

Depending on maturity and needs, the fund delivers midterm loans of EUR 300k–3M to cooperatives & agri-SMEs – key aggregators of smallholder farmers – rather than lending directly to individuals. This approach delivers comparable benefits to smallholders, while sidestepping challenges associated with direct farmer lending. Multiyear offtake agreements with industrial buyers – enabled by Societe Generale’s existing banking relationships – ensure predictable revenue streams that enhance cooperative creditworthiness, reduce repayment risk and represent a solid basis to engage in transformation plans towards more sustainable & resilient models. By aligning incentives across farmers, cooperatives/ agri-SMEs, banks, and offtakers, the model helps make agricultural climate resilience investable at scale.

Alongside finance, IREN Agri provides technical assistance, supported by Ksapa’s SUTTI inclusive digital platform. SUTTI delivers face-to-face and online training, climate alerts, and market data while enabling real-time monitoring of farm practices. This integration enhances farmer decision-making while ensuring that investments translate into measurable impact.