The main goal of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is to increase access to finance for small and medium enterprises – which is especially relevant for returning migrants. The AGF’s key mandate is to assist financial institutions to increase their financing to African Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the provision of partial financial guarantees and capacity development assistance. AGF’s products and services provide financial institutions with the means which they can leverage in bringing their African SME financing interventions to the required scale.

AGF was established in 2011 by the Government of Denmark (represented by DANIDA), the Government of Spain (represented by AECID) and the African Development Bank (AFDB), with a mandate of facilitating access to finance for SMEs to enable them fully play their role of driving the growth of African economies.

In 2015, four years after its founding, AGF concluded its first external growth operations with the acquisition of the Guarantee Fund for Private Investment in Africa (GARI Fund) for an amount of 35 million USD. At the end of this operation, the French Development Agency (AFD) became AGF’s fourth shareholder.

In 2016, the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) became AGF’s fifth shareholder. Under the leadership of NDF, AGF launched a Green Guarantee Facility to unlock financing for SMEs that invest in or market low-carbon technologies.