The Proparco investment, announced in mid-July, is expected to create or sustain more than 2,900 jobs while improving smallholder farmers' access to financing, markets, and climate-smart solutions. ARAF II plans to back roughly 20 businesses through the fund, according to Guillaume Barberousse, head of Proparco's Investment Department, who described the fund as backing entrepreneurs building practical solutions for food security, farmer livelihoods, and climate resilience.
The deal lands against a striking statistic from the African Development Bank: agriculture accounts for roughly 30 percent of Africa's gross domestic product and the continent holds nearly 60 percent of the world's remaining uncultivated arable land, yet the sector receives just 6 percent of total bank lending. That financing gap is precisely what a wave of new capital is now targeting.
Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Côte d'Ivoire Draw the Biggest Deals
Nigeria has emerged as a particular magnet for agribusiness capital this year. The World Bank approved a $500 million credit in March for the country's Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth Project, aimed at boosting smallholder productivity, strengthening value chains, and improving food and nutrition security. Nigerian dairy and yoghurt producer L&Z Integrated Farms, based in Kano, has separately drawn investment from Sahel Capital, which backed the expansion of the company's processing plant and dairy operation.
In Ethiopia, the International Finance Corporation is set to back the country's first private fertiliser plant — a project industry watchers describe as a genuinely changing market for a country still heavily dependent on imported fertiliser. Meanwhile in Côte d'Ivoire, Olam Agri's investment vehicle is preparing a new acquisition, according to Africa Business+ reporting, illustrating the growing footprint Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is building across African farm sectors, given Olam Agri's Saudi ownership ties.
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Where Else the Money Is Moving
Beyond the headline deals, a broader pattern of agribusiness dealmaking is visible across multiple African markets. In South Africa, private equity firm Phatisa, through its Food Fund 3, has agreed to acquire Zaad, an agricultural inputs holding company spanning seed breeding, forage production, and crop protection across the continent. New Forests, a global manager of nature-based assets, invested in Rance Timber, a century-old South African forestry and sawmilling operation managing more than 14,000 hectares of pine plantations in the Eastern Cape. In Morocco, private equity firm Amethis took a minority stake in BH Holding, a fruit exporter specialising in packing and shipping high-value produce.
Zambia has also drawn fresh capital: Netherlands-based Oxano Capital announced an investment in Zamgoat, a Zambian meat processing company, part of a broader trend of international investors backing African protein and meat value chains rather than only primary crop production.
The Food Security Backdrop Driving Urgency
The investment wave arrives as food insecurity concerns intensify in parts of the continent. The Food and Agriculture Organization warned in January that up to 52.8 million people across West Africa and the Sahel could face acute food insecurity during the June-to-August 2026 lean season without further intervention, with Nigeria and Ghana among the countries most at risk. That warning has added urgency to investment strategies focused specifically on strengthening local food systems rather than export-oriented agriculture alone.
For agribusiness investors and entrepreneurs across the continent, the current wave of dealmaking — spanning dairy in Nigeria, fertiliser in Ethiopia, agri-inputs in South Africa, timber in the Eastern Cape, and meat processing in Zambia — signals that international capital increasingly views African food systems as an investable growth story rather than a purely developmental cause, even as the persistent 6 percent bank-lending share makes clear how much room remains for that capital to grow.
