African Development Bank Group provides nearly $1 million to ACRE Africa to expand climate-smart insurance for Tanzania’s smallholder farmers

The $997,000 grant to ACRE Africa, provided through the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility, aims to reach 300,000 farmers across 15 regions.

The African Development Bank Group has signed a $997,000 grant with the Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE Africa) to expand access to climate-smart agricultural insurance for smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The grant is provided through the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI). The grant complements an in-kind contribution of $437,000 from ACRE Africa, bringing total project financing to roughly $1.43 million. 

Titled the Bridging the Agricultural Risk Protection Gap to Scale Climate Smart Insurance Project, the initiative will widen access to climate risk insurance and offer complementary technologies and tailored financial services. It will support digital systems for farmer registration, premium collection, monitoring and claims processing. Inclusive distribution of the insurance and complementary technologies and financial services will run through community-based agents and partnerships with financial institutions, input providers and off-takers. 

The project aims to reach 300,000 farmers across 15 regions across Tanzania. It seeks to drive economic development by empowering women and youth, described as agriculture’s largest workforce contributors, to strengthen climate resilience and agricultural productivity.

Alex Mubiru, Director General for the Bank Group’s East Africa Regional Office, said the partnership is about helping smallholder farmers protect their livelihoods and build resilience as climate risks increase. He said “development must be increasingly inclusive” across age, gender and income as well as geography, and that digital finance offers a way to reach people long excluded from traditional financial services.

Ewan Wheeler, CEO of ACRE Africa, emphasised the role of digital agricultural insurance in protecting smallholder farmers’ livelihoods. He said the partnership with ADFI will help scale innovations that make climate-smart insurance and financial inclusion more accessible to farmers across Tanzania. By combining insurance with data analytics, he added, ACRE Africa supports stakeholders across the agricultural value chain to make informed decisions.

Headquartered in Kenya, ACRE Africa has offices in six countries across Africa. It provides end-to-end risk mitigation solutions that span access to credit and inputs, capacity building, advisory services, insurance cover and access to markets.

The initiative aligns with the Government’s National Financial Inclusion Framework 2023–2028 and the Tanzania Development Vision 2050. It also reflects the Bank Group’s Climate Change and Green Growth Framework, supporting national priorities for financial inclusion, climate resilience and sustainable agricultural development. Since 1971, the Bank Group has mobilised nearly $10 billion to finance more than 170 projects and programmes in Tanzania, covering strategic sectors including transport, agriculture, energy, social and the financial sector.