Finance is widely seen as one of the main constraints on agricultural growth in Africa, and banks, microfinance institutions, SACCOs, agribusinesses and development partners have responded with a growing range of products: seasonal input credit, warehouse receipt and inventory finance, contract farming arrangements, asset leasing and partial credit guarantees. Each claims to reach farmers who were previously excluded and to raise productivity and incomes. Evidencing those claims requires monitoring and evaluation systems that understand both credit risk and farm economics.

The Monitoring and Evaluation of Agri-Finance & Value-Chain Lending Training Course moves from programme logic to proof. Participants first map how value-chain finance works and where results should appear, then set indicators for portfolio quality, outreach, client protection and farmer-level change. The middle of the week focuses on data: loan management system extracts, farmer surveys, mobile data collection and quality checks. The final sessions address evaluation design, attribution and additionality, and the reporting of results to lenders, investors and funders.

Participants work with sample loan portfolio files and survey datasets throughout, and complete an M&E plan for an agri-finance programme of their choice.

Participants will leave able to:

• Map the flows of credit, produce and payments in a value chain and identify where results should be measured.
• Construct a theory of change and results framework for an agricultural lending or guarantee programme.
• Select portfolio indicators such as portfolio at risk, repayment rate, outreach and average loan size.
• Define farmer and enterprise outcome indicators covering yields, incomes, technology adoption and resilience.
• Design farmer surveys and mobile data collection tools that account for seasonality and recall bias.
• Compare evaluation designs for estimating additionality and impact on borrowers.
• Present portfolio and impact results in dashboards suited to lenders, investors and donors.

The training is relevant to professionals financing or assessing agricultural value chains, for example:

• Agricultural finance and agribusiness relationship officers in banks
• M&E and social performance officers in microfinance institutions and SACCOs
• Managers of credit guarantee funds and blended finance facilities
• Programme officers in development partners and impact investors
• Value-chain and market systems development advisers
• Planning staff in agriculture ministries and development banks
• Finance and outgrower managers in agribusinesses and cooperatives
• Researchers and consultants evaluating rural finance programmes

You take back to your institution:

• A results framework linking an agri-finance product to portfolio, enterprise and household outcomes.
• An indicator reference sheet with definitions, formulas, data sources and disaggregation.
• A farmer survey instrument ready for adaptation in KoboToolbox or ODK.
• A portfolio monitoring template that tracks PAR, repayment and outreach by value chain and season.
• An evaluation design note setting out how additionality will be assessed.
• A complete M&E plan for an agri-finance programme of your choice.

Teaching moves between finance and field realities, combining:

• Analysis of anonymised loan portfolio files from agricultural lenders
• Survey design practicals using mobile data collection platforms
• Value-chain mapping exercises for crops and livestock common in the region
• Evaluation design clinics reviewing real programme scenarios
• Group presentations of M&E plans with structured peer feedback

Participants earn a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy by attending all five days and completing the portfolio lab, survey practical and final M&E plan.