Accra, Ghana – 16 January 2026
The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and Farrelly & Mitchell today held a high-level strategic meeting at the FARA Headquarters in Accra, Ghana, to advance discussions on a forthcoming Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at jointly mobilising resources to technically advance projects that address high-priority challenges and opportunities with a special focus on the Common African Agro-Parks (CAAPs) Programme.
The meeting brought together Dr. Aggrey Agumya, Executive Director of FARA, Mr. Malachy Mitchell, Co-founder and Managing Director of Farrelly & Mitchell, and Mr. Stephen Awuah the Regional Director of Farrelly & Mitchell in West Africa. They exchanged views on the strategic, technical, and financial contours of the proposed cooperation.
Responding to a Critical Project Preparation Challenge
The CAAPs Programme, endorsed by the African Union, is a flagship initiative designed to accelerate agro-industrial transformation through integrated, corridor-based agro-parks linking agricultural production zones with processing, energy, logistics, and regional markets under the AfCFTA framework. By advancing bankable agro-industrial corridors, CAAPs aim to reduce Africa’s food import dependence, create decent jobs—particularly for youth and women—and strengthen intra-African trade.
While eleven priority CAAPs corridors have been identified across Africa, the CAAPs Secretariat—hosted by FARA—faces significant upstream constraints, particularly the limited availability of grant and concessional resources required to finance robust prefeasibility and feasibility studies. These studies are indispensable to translate political commitment into technically sound, investment-ready projects that meet international environmental, social, governance, and bankability standards.
Against this backdrop, both leaders recognised the urgency of strengthening structured partnerships capable of bridging the gap between strategic vision and implementable investments.
A Strategic Framework for Resource Mobilisation
The envisaged MoU between FARA and Farrelly & Mitchell will establish a strategic partnership framework to jointly engage development finance institutions, foundations, climate funds, private equity funds, and advisory platforms. The cooperation will focus on mobilising technical assistance, grant funding, and blended-finance instruments to support CAAPs prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and subsequently investment into CAAPs projects.
Farrelly & Mitchell brings experience in structuring and coordinating development finance and advisory engagements with international partners, while FARA provides continental policy anchoring, and coordination with African Union institutions, Regional Economic Communities, Member States and coordination bodies of agri-food system stakeholders e.g. research and innovation, extension, farmers, agribusiness.
The Parties confirmed their joint commitment to finalise the MoU and commence coordinated outreach to prospective funders in early 2026.
One Comment
This is an exciting collaboration towards an incredibly transformational continental initiative. I look forward to the progress that can be achieved by both institutions in this regard.