Tropingo Foods is an agro- processing and export company, established in 2014. The company operates, fruit drying and fresh produce export pack-house in Gambia, including a supplier network of over 300 farmers. With UNCDF support, Tropingo Foods seeks to position itself as a leading producer exporter of organic and ethically sourced mango products in the region.

This investment is being featured by Sirra Foon is an UNCDF Investment Officer in the Gambia and supports ongoing programmes. As an important actor of this project, she answered the following questions:

• What made you enthusiastic about this investment?

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are key to the economies of various countries. In context of The Gambia a recent mapping study showed that about 98% of 115,000 MSMEs are micro leaving huge missing middle of small, medium and large enterprises. These MSMEs contribute more than 26% to real GDP and employ the largest share (62.9%) of the active labor force (15 – 64). That being said, Gambian MSMEs are unable to access finance for growth and expansion due to a number of reasons on their risk profiles. Despite the challenging environment in accessing finance, Tropingo Foods, with UNCDF support, has been able to diversify its product lines, increase its processing capacity, create new jobs and effectively build the capacity of its network of small holder farmers. Additionally, through its de-risking mechanism of providing seed capital grants, UNCDF was able to support Tropingo unlock a commercial loan facility towards their expansion goals. Seeing local economic development in action with tangible results makes me excited to replicate these results with other SMEs in The Gambia!!

• What were the challenges faced by this project?

Tropingo Foods represented our first dual key investment project in The Gambia, funded through UNCDF’s flagship program in the country, the Jobs, Skills and Finance (JSF) Program for youth and women. Given the informal context of most Gambian businesses and the lack of relevant national policies, it was a big challenge getting the right kind of data to allow us to adequately assess the development impact of the project.
Another significant challenge was the extent to which Banks where unwilling to provide financing to SMEs given the regulatory environment that mostly restricts long term lending. That being said, we were able to overcome some of these challenges with Ecobank Gambia Ltd through a series of consultative meetings which resulted in Tropingo being able to unlock additional finance from the bank contingent on UNCDF’s de-risking mechanism of providing seed capital grant to Tropingo.

• What are the lessons learned from this example?

Given the challenges in supporting Tropingo Foods access finance, it is apparent to UNCDF and our government partners that a mechanism for subsidizing SME credit is needed in The Gambia. To this end, The Government of The Gambia through the Central Bank has requested UNCDF to support its efforts to establish a credit guarantee scheme for SMEs with a view to drive SME credit for growth and development through the efficient and inclusive allocation of financial resources for women and youth’s economic empowerment. This scheme will be piloted by initial funding from UNCDF to be hosted and operated by the Central Bank. The grant agreement has already been signed. UNCDF will also support the Central Bank to develop a Manual that will provide guidance on the operationalization of the scheme. Upon the successful implementation of the pilot stage, the proposed SME credit guarantee scheme will be scaled and transitioned into an independent autonomous facility.

About Sirra Foon:

Prior to joining UNCDF, Sirra Foon worked as Business Planning Manager/Research & Actuarial Manager at the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, The Gambia.

Sirra works at UNCDF Gambia as an Investment Officer for the “Jobs, Skills and Finance (JSF) for Women and Youth in The Gambia” Programme providing technical assistance and capital to climate smart LED investments.

Sirra holds a BA (Honors) and a Master of Science in Actuarial Science.

Contact:

sirra.foon@uncdf.org