Africa Guarantee Fund was represented at the Third Sustainable Capital Markets Conference 2026 in Nairobi by Patrick Lumumba, Group Director, Capacity Development, who participated in a panel discussion on “Guarantees and Risk-Sharing: Unlocking Capital for Africa’s Real Economy.”
The conference brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from across the financial ecosystem, including regulators, capital market authorities, development finance institutions, commercial banks, institutional investors, policymakers, and sustainability experts. The event provided an important platform for exploring innovative solutions to mobilize capital, strengthen financial markets, and accelerate sustainable economic growth across Africa.
During the panel discussion, Patrick shared insights on a key question facing many institutions operating across the continent:
How do you scale solutions across Africa when every market has its own realities?
His message was clear: successful scaling is not about copying and pasting solutions from one market to another. Rather, it requires understanding what can be standardized, what must be adapted, and how lessons learned in one market can be applied thoughtfully in another.
At the heart of AGF’s approach is risk sharing. By partnering with financial institutions and sharing lending risk, guarantee mechanisms help unlock financing for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that often face barriers to accessing credit.
However, the discussion emphasized that issuing a guarantee is only the beginning. The real measure of impact lies in how effectively financial institutions utilize guarantee facilities to reach new borrowers, develop products for underserved segments such as women-owned businesses and green enterprises, and embed these approaches into their long-term business strategies.
Drawing on AGF’s experience across African markets, Patrick highlighted that while the fundamentals of guarantee provision remain consistent, each market presents unique regulatory, institutional, and operational dynamics. As a result, scaling impact requires both consistency and adaptability.
For Africa’s MSMEs, sustainable access to finance will not come from a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, it will be driven by strong partnerships, informed adaptation, and financial institutions equipped to serve the businesses that power Africa’s economies.
As Patrick noted, AGF’s role extends beyond sharing risk. It is about helping create the conditions that enable financial institutions to lend differently, reach further, and sustain positive change over time.
The goal is not to replicate one solution across Africa. It is to scale what works while respecting what makes each market unique.
