12/09/2026
NADF Seeks New Framework to Drive African Agricultural Investment Beyond Partnerships
The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has called for stronger economic and institutional systems to ease cross-border agricultural investment and enable successful partnerships to expand across Africa.
Head of Strategic Partnerships at NADF, Naona Usoroh, made the call at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF 2026) in Kigali, Rwanda, where she urged governments, investors and development partners to address the barriers limiting the movement of capital, goods, people and technology across the continent.
Speaking on “Leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Agricultural Investments,” Usoroh said Africa’s ambition for an integrated market would remain difficult to achieve without systems that make cross-border transactions easier and more predictable.
“We talk about an integrated African market. But if capital, people, and goods cannot move easily within the continent, how integrated are we really?” she asked.
She said partnerships must go beyond diplomatic or institutional relationships to include predictable payment systems, harmonised standards, risk-sharing arrangements and mechanisms for resolving disputes. She also called for flexible models that can be adapted to different African markets rather than simply replicated.
Usoroh identified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) as important opportunities for building stronger regional investment corridors, particularly for agricultural inputs, technology and specialised services.
“The real question is not how we replicate a successful partnership, but what architecture would allow success to travel,” she said. “Strategic partnerships create the relationships, architecture makes them scalable, and investment is what happens when we remove the friction between them.”
