Harnessing Financing Opportunities: Inclusive Finance for MSMEs, Women, Youth, and Agricultural Value Chains

Key Topics: • The financing gap for MSMEs, women-led businesses, youth entrepreneurs, and agricultural value chain actors, and the NPL implications of underserved and under-monitored borrowers.• Collateral challenges and government-backed guarantee schemes, partial credit guarantees, first-loss facilities, and portfolio guarantee structures. • Invoice financing, factoring, and reverse factoring, unlocking working capital for local suppliers without traditional collateral. • Agricultural value chain finance, medium-term lending for food security and rural development; managing agricultural credit risk through output purchase agreements and crop insurance. • Housing finance, mortgage market development and the link between land registration reform and housing credit access, housing market development and collateral foreclosure and enforcement. • Diaspora remittances as a financial sector resource, channeling remittance flows into productive financial products. • Financial literacy, business formalization, and record-keeping as prerequisites for bankable borrowers. • Gender-responsive financial product design, evidence on what works for women entrepreneurs. Expected Output: Priority financing mechanisms for underserved segments; recommendations for guarantee schemes, agricultural finance, and financial literacy, and expansion of sustainable access to finance. Panelist Hon. Benedict Dolo, Deputy Minister for Small Business Adm., Ministry of Commerce & Industry|Mr. Henry D. Z. Yanquoi, Assistant Minister for Economic Policy, Macro & Financial Sector Policy, Ministry of Finance & Development Planning|Mr. Gweh Gaye Tarwo, Country Economist, World Bank|Mr. YoQuai Vernon Lavala, Senior Private & Financial Sector Specialist, International Finance Corporation|Mr. Kudakwashe Matereke, Director, Regional Operations/ Head of Mission Afreximbank| Mr. James S. Mambu, Chief Business Officer, Access Bank Liberia|Mr. Abraham B. Johnson, Afriland Bank|Mr. Benjamin Garnett, Rubber Planters Association| Mrs. Rose Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, No Stress Business Center